So, I need one of those heavy duty upholstery staple guns for my redecorating projects, and I didn't buy one at Target yesterday because I was absolutely sure there was one in this house that belonged to my mom. This morning my dad and I were looking through a bunch of drawers that still had her stuff in them in search of said mythical stapler and we found a ziplock bag full of photos.
These were my grandmother's photos. Some of them went back to the 20s, or even before. And, swear to god, I cannot tell who 90% of the people in the ones taken before the 60s are. I mean, I can recognize my mom as a child, and by context, her brothers. I recognized a 1937 picture of my "aunt" Jane (who wasn't really my aunt, hence the quotation marks) just because she's one of those people who apparently looked exactly the same from the day she was born to the day she died. But most of them? Dunno.
There's a wedding picture of (I think) my grandmother in the most incredibly cool flapperish veil and t-strap 20s shoes. I only am assuming it's my grandmother because of the bride's mouth. There's also a studio portrait of what I think is my grandmother, grandfather who no one ever talked about, and their three kids, including my mom as a newborn. This guy who I think is my grandfather had a very impressive moustache. Think Archduke Ferdinand or something.
There are also two copies of one photo of the outside of a building, circa 30s or 40s, which looks like nothing so much as, okay, an institution. There's no sign on it, at least visible...I think it might be the back of the building, because there's a dumpster to one side. And someone apparently walking by randomly, out of the shot. I have no idea where or what this is, or why my grandmother would have two copies of a picture of it.
So, my helpful hint is this. Label your fucking pictures so your descendants will not be frustrated. You're not going to live forever, you know.
xoxo
1 comment:
With you on this one. My kid is a photographer by hobby and when we went through some old family pictures, it's "who is this, and who is that?" All I can do is guess most of the time.
The only ancestral picture I can positively identify is one of my grandfather, sitting in a huge piece of WWI ship machinery (he was a shipwright)with a big grin and a cat in his lap. Neither his grin nor the presence of a cat changed for 55 years. So, if you don't identify the pictures, then retain principal facial features and give the rest of us a break.
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