Neptune in Leo

If one of them raised you, you learned from them to stand when a guest comes in, and you still do it without thinking.

The spot that vanished

When Voyager 2 flew past Neptune in 1989, it photographed a huge dark storm in the southern clouds, the size of the Earth, and named it the Great Dark Spot. By 1994, when the Hubble telescope looked again, it was gone. A storm seen once, famous, and then vanished: Glamour and what fades are Neptune’s territory. Leo, the sign that belongs to the Sun, belongs to the stage and the spotlight, and here the whole generation dreamed of shining.

The age of the picture palace

Its children grew up with the first talking pictures, the movie palace on the high street, jazz, dance halls and the first radio stars. Hollywood was in its golden age as they came of age. They dressed up to go out, danced as if the evening mattered, and believed romance could change a life. They kept the ticket stubs from the pictures, and the dance cards.

Then came the Depression and a world war, and the dream of glamour became the dream of courage.

The greatest generation

Many of this Neptune served in the war or held the home front together, and came home to raise families on very little, with style. They were proud, and very private about what they had seen, and loyal to the ideals that carried them through. They valued manners, occasion, honour and a certain style, even when they had little money.

Your grandparents, or theirs

Grandchildren remember the details: the good shoes for church, the way they danced whenever the family got together, the photographs in which they look like film stars, and the stories they never quite told.

Dazzled

A generation in love with heroes and stars could be dazzled by leaders who promised glory, and some of the dream was fantasy covering a great deal of pain.

The generosity and the style they kept through everything are still visible in the families they made, in the way people there still dress up for a birthday.