Day 98 of 365 - Tripping Down Memory Lane
There is nothing quite like seeing photos of yourself, when you were not quite two years old, to send you down the rabbit hole of memory lane. Today, a cousin of mine sent me a half a dozen photos from a family visit to our paternal grandparents in 1956!
My whole family is not in these photos. The older boys were likely off somewhere, fishing or whatever as my grandparents lived near a river. My sisters, including the eldest girl, ten years older than me, the next a year older, and me and my twin, are in these photos with our parents, aunt and uncle, cousin, and grandparents.
The little girls are dressed up in their Sunday best, floral print dresses probably sewn by our mother, white ankle socks and black Mary Jane style shoes. They were likely the clothes we were dressed in for church that morning and were told to keep clean before we made the under an hour drive to another town for the visit.
We look so little, and like we are still discovering what living in this world meant. There is a look of vulnerability and curiosity on our faces, as if we are not quite sure what to be doing. In another frame, my eldest sister is pushing each of us twins in side by side portable swings. We look more relaxed then, and were out of our pretty dresses. My guess is, it was nap time, and her job to lull us to sleep.
Of course, I have no conscious memory of that visit. My earliest memory is from age three or four, visiting relatives on my mother's side of the family. These Sunday car rides to visit one extended family or the other were common. All the kids were piled into the back seat, sitting on each others knees or even the floor. There were no seatbelts then. Maybe the youngest got to sit in front with mom.
The cousins would spend the afternoon playing together. The women would visit and cook. The men would smoke and visit in whatever way men did at that time. Then we would have our supper and drive home.
Life has changed a lot since the 1950's. Now, relatives for the most part, live long distances away and keep in touch via social media. In person visits are rare, usually for a funeral or wedding, mostly funerals nowadays.
In those photos my whole life stretched before me, and now, here I am entering probably the last quarter of it. A lot has happened in between and I'm still looking for my place in the world, only in a different phase of my lifetime. I guess that's life on earth as a human being. We're always trying to figure it out, and traveling along side by side, whether near or far apart.
My whole family is not in these photos. The older boys were likely off somewhere, fishing or whatever as my grandparents lived near a river. My sisters, including the eldest girl, ten years older than me, the next a year older, and me and my twin, are in these photos with our parents, aunt and uncle, cousin, and grandparents.
The little girls are dressed up in their Sunday best, floral print dresses probably sewn by our mother, white ankle socks and black Mary Jane style shoes. They were likely the clothes we were dressed in for church that morning and were told to keep clean before we made the under an hour drive to another town for the visit.
We look so little, and like we are still discovering what living in this world meant. There is a look of vulnerability and curiosity on our faces, as if we are not quite sure what to be doing. In another frame, my eldest sister is pushing each of us twins in side by side portable swings. We look more relaxed then, and were out of our pretty dresses. My guess is, it was nap time, and her job to lull us to sleep.
Of course, I have no conscious memory of that visit. My earliest memory is from age three or four, visiting relatives on my mother's side of the family. These Sunday car rides to visit one extended family or the other were common. All the kids were piled into the back seat, sitting on each others knees or even the floor. There were no seatbelts then. Maybe the youngest got to sit in front with mom.
The cousins would spend the afternoon playing together. The women would visit and cook. The men would smoke and visit in whatever way men did at that time. Then we would have our supper and drive home.
Life has changed a lot since the 1950's. Now, relatives for the most part, live long distances away and keep in touch via social media. In person visits are rare, usually for a funeral or wedding, mostly funerals nowadays.
In those photos my whole life stretched before me, and now, here I am entering probably the last quarter of it. A lot has happened in between and I'm still looking for my place in the world, only in a different phase of my lifetime. I guess that's life on earth as a human being. We're always trying to figure it out, and traveling along side by side, whether near or far apart.
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