Old Photographs

I have been sifting through photos that were my mother-in-law's. 

There are boxes of them. 

It is slow going.

I am perplexed at what to do with a lot of them.

I've brought a stack upstairs and Mike took a look at them and identified some rather quickly. So, photos of the nephews and nieces will go to my sister-in-law. Photos of Mike's cousins will go to his Aunt Peg or cousin, Scott. We will keep some, give some to his children, etc. 

Then, there are those photos where Mike cannot identify folks. Some, he says, "That may be such-and-so, who lived in..." Some, he says, "I think that is..." Then, there are some which he says, "I have no idea who that is."

Basically, I am sorting them into groups and placing them into zip bags for now. Bags are labeled for this relative or that relative. But, what about the ones that he cannot identify? Well, for now, they are going to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. I'm taking the attitude that I can just pass the burden of a decision off onto somebody else!

The great thing about old photographs is that they let us have a window into times past. We can take a look at fashions and clothing styles. Some of these are really interesting and some of them are quite revealing. Take a look at the outfits, or 'fits as the kids say, in this Family Portrait Gallery. The lace work on the blouses of the women in the older portraits, for example, are absolutely beautiful. It is also interesting to note that one of the male ancestors is sitting with his pipe. Who smokes a pipe these days? For that matter, smoking of any kind is a habit that is far less taken up than it was when I was a young girl.

Another wonderful thing that has come from sorting out the photos is the stories Mike tells about different relatives or how things were on different holidays and family gatherings. Many of our childhood experiences mirror one another's but some of them are so very different from experiences I had as a kid.

Mike's mother was a school secretary. So, there are several sheets of annual school photos of her. Mike and I had a chuckle at the different hair styles and glasses styles that she had over the years. Of course, it is also interesting to see the progression of age in all of them.

Some of my favorite finds were Mike's school photographs. In many of them he is uncertain of the grade he was in at the time. But, it is such a fun thing to see him as a child and to hear the stories he tells about a teacher or event which took place at that time.

Mike's School Photo

The class photo above had been ripped in half and I didn't find the other half. So, the teacher is not included. Don't you know that Mike, pictured front row and center of the photo above, was quite the handful? We both chuckled at him having the hem folded up on his jeans - probably to allow for longer wear and enabling his parents to get their money's worth out of the school clothes investment. Even though it is a still photo, I'm sure that if it was one of the modern day motion photos, Mike would be wiggling! Sadly, he cannot identify any of his classmates by name as this was probably his first grade class picture and he's lost contact with most of those folks over the past sixty years. However, it really makes me smile and I am so glad his mother held onto it.