Old Photos

I’ve been fascinated for as long as I can remember by old photographs. I never miss a chance to rummage through those boxes of pictures you find in antique shops. It’s fun to imagine what the lives of those people were like. To try and put some context around the images; some personality into the faces.

When I was a boy I’d look at the old family photo album and find younger versions of my grandmother, pictures of relatives who had died, and glimpses of places and events that happened before I was born.

I don’t know what happened to most of those pictures. Mom and Dad have been gone for some time now, and I’m not sure what my brother preserved. I know I have just a few pictures, and my album. Dad made a special picture album for each of his sons. It features highlights of our childhood…vacation trips, Christmas mornings, birthdays, special events that sort of thing. I can watch myself grow up in those photos, and watch my Mom and Dad in their prime: happy and proud.

Of course it’s just the happy times…far from an accurate historical record. We didn’t smile all the time like that. There were days, weeks and years in between the pictures when things of a less rosy nature colored our lives. But that, of course, is not the point. The album makes me feel good when I take it out and look for the hundredth time at its old pages…hand-printed notes and comments from Dad included in the margins. It brings some moments back to mind. Sometimes it brings Dad and Mom and Uncle Charles, and Grandma and me back for a while. It’s a little paper time machine that connects me to the places and people I know I’ll never touch again.

So, thank-you, Dad.

There was a big box of photos under our bed, back in the stick house days. My son is keeping them in storage for us now, and I think I’ll go back and get them soon.

I’d hate to have somebody find pictures of me or the boys in an antique shop someday and try to put some context around those images. I think I’d rather put them in a time machine.
Blog at ya later,
-Geezerguy