Photographs and memories

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Photographs or pictures and memories are tightly linked. After all, a picture says more than a thousand words, and therefore looking at (old) photographs can be a wonderful way to spend a couple of hours of looking back at past events. And as soon as we see the picture, we remember the whole story! Where we were when the picture was taken, who we were with, even what the weather was like at that time. And more than just that captured moment in the photograph, we can place ourselves right back into the story of that time; that day.

It triggers our memories so we can tell the old stories to new generations. Of where we lived, what we did; and to then wonder about the changes that have happened since…

That being said, there is also wisdom in recording at least the factual parts of that story with the photographs. Because the photographs will keep telling their stories long after we have gone ~ if we let them ~ and while they will be interesting to future generations (even if it is just for them to say something along lines of ‘Hey, look at that, that is just plain weird-looking’ to the things that used to be so ‘normal’ for us at that time); when there is no context in which to place that photograph, the story can only be imagined…

Not too long ago I have come into possession of a whole bunch of old slides. And when I say ‘old’ I mean ‘OLD’! About ninety years old… The black-and-white film securely fastened between two, thin sheets of glass with special, linen-based tape.
The stories they tell are family stories of far away travels. The portraits have to go back to my great grandparents.

Those that were part of those travels have long since passed on, and with only cursory notes and a lot of slides that are clearly out of order ~ it leaves me with a major ‘who is who’ and ‘what is where’.

Some of the places I recognize, as I have visited them myself some sixty years or so after my grandparents were there. Others are nice to see on the pictures, but the stories the photographs tell are unfamiliar to my mind…

There are also more recent pictures. Nice, crisp black-and-whites of family scenes and vacation pleasures. And while I don’t have total recall of those, I can see my brother and me growing up; my parents growing older. A dozen pictures at a time…

Seeing the photographs makes me remember good times and sunny days. And stories of ice cream and castles build of sand that proudly stood there until the sea reclaimed the beach…
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