Yes, one more of the digitizing photo series. But, I promise, it'll be short and sweet.
So, I'm digging through the first box of pictures I inherited from my Parents. Mom had passed in 2002, Dad in 2010. Mom had been pretty sick before so had a lot of time on her hands stuck at home and a certain focus on this photo sorting job.
As I opened the box, 3 non picture things fell out. An important, at the time, document, a Card and a newspaper clipping. Suffice it to say, shortly thereafter, things got a tad dusty in my office. I hope you'll understand.
Sometimes you think History is Long, Long ago. And maybe it is. However, I had a pretty good lesson in how "not long ago" history is.
The first teaching aid was this.
I knew my Mother was alive in WWII. But it never really dawned on me that she was impacted by it. She was a little girl in San Francisco at the time. Not Ned Simes on Guadalcanal/Saipan/Tinian level of involvement, granted, but still impacted. The term "World War" took on a bit broader and reality based meaning for me.
The Card looked like this when I opened the box.
At first I thought it was one of my Sister's First Communion announcements.
Then I opened it.
Holy Cow! I'd never seen a picture of my Mom as a kid much less as a Kid, pre-Pearl Harbor! I just never pictured her as anything but my Mom, as a grownup.
Then came the real kick in the pants.
Edith Mango King was my maternal grandmother. She passed when I was about 10. Memories of her were good. She was a very nice person, a good cook, took good care of us kids when Mom and Dad needed time off. In short, a great Grandmother. But she was old!
No, juvat, maybe when you knew her, but not all her life!
And, I guess that lesson is why I'm spending my time digitizing these pictures.
Welcome Back Sarge, See you Thursday. Tuna's got a good one for tomorrow.
Well juvat 1933 to now......almost 89 years already, almost enough time for family history to become History. Well done on saving your family history. Hmmmmm......wonder how much cursive writing will be on today's family remnants?
ReplyDeleteNylon,
DeleteThanks. Yep that article really floored me. I sent a copy of it to my Mom's Sister. She immediately called me and we talked about it for quite a while. There were a couple of times I had a hard time clearing my throat. Those three things really brought the Depression and WWII to something more than an abstract history lesson.
I haven't written in Cursive since Sister Mary Elephant called me to her desk in 4th grade and told me to print. My cursive would never be legible. Other than my illegible signature, I haven't written in cursive since.
Very cool! I always did like to pore over pictures of the extended family. Sometimes, it is a bit dusty, even just thinking about it.
ReplyDeleteI don't have many pictures anymore, they all seem to have wandered off over the years. Those kinds of things are like buried treasure. When you find them, they are priceless. Seeing you mom as a little girl? I can't imagine. I don't know if they even had a camera in my mom's family when they were little. In the 50's they did. I did see one once of my dad when he was about 10. I was struck by how few trees were in the back ground and how much dirt was visible out to the horizon. The years after the dust bowl were pretty stark. He looked a lot like my youngest son.
STxAR,
DeleteYeah and I've still got the box in the first photo and 4 slightly larger tupperware boxes left to go through. But...it keeps me off the streets at night, so I've got that going for me! :-)
Those are super cool Juvat. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteWe are having the same sort of experience going through my parents stuff as well. As my mother essentially inherited all of the material side of pictures, etc., there is a lot of discovery to be had.
Ditto! ;-)
DeleteThat is super cool Juvat! I love little historical vignettes like that.
ReplyDeleteAs we are going through my parents' house and the fact that my mother inherited a great deal of photos and such from her Great Aunts, I suspect we will have the same kind of discoveries.
THBB,
DeleteIt's been a fun, but thought provoking exercise so far. Gonna start on the photos in that box shortly. Hopefully, Mom put notes on the backs.
I suspect you will.
OT, did you send an email to Mrs J yesterday? She's researching the question if so.
Well, given my inability to work the InterWeb, sort of - registered for the list on the website but realized (just now) I needed to send an e-mail too. Situation now rectified. Thanks for the reminder!
DeleteShe got that, you should start getting newsletters and such shortly. Thanks
DeleteThis is just so wonderful! :-)
ReplyDelete-Barry
Barry,
DeleteYeah it has been an interesting project so far.
Old photos and old letters collect a lot of dust.
ReplyDeleteThere's a corner of a shelf in the "office" that has an accumulation of said dust that's all mine.
There are other shelves with dust to share.
Heck! This house has been collecting dust for forty years.
BTW- MB and I went to see TG-Maverick yesterday (Friday we re-watched the original Top Gun on Prime).
DeleteWe both enjoyed it, and recommend it.
Skip,
DeleteThey do at that. Still got an awful lot of it to inspect though. But...It keeps me off the streets at night, so, I've got that going for me.
I've heard that a lot lately from the denizens of Sarge's blog. Gonna have to break down and go see...soon.
DeleteI have been doing pretty much the same thing over time here at the condo. My biggest problem is that most of the pictures are in CA. Every time one of the kids comes I ask politely for them to bring a few ziplock bag of pics. At least we've got them in ziplocks according to which kid, which place (all the ones I've been to and Marshall, Corsicana and McKinney TX, where everything got started). I found a picture of my grandmother as a two year-old and I sent it immediately to my daughter, whose daughter, the fun-filled Ava, had a spooky resemblance as a baby. Does that sentence make sense? No worries, mates. I have found pics of great uncles standing by their locomotives (fighter pilots and their planes?) and reunion pictures of the clan. You can't even count the number of children! Enough said. It's fun and most important.
ReplyDeleteLt Fuzz,
DeleteZip-lock's is a pretty good idea. Mom did something similar in that she used post-it notes to divide the shoe box into different sections. They've got writing on them so I'm hoping that some kind of sectional definition e.g. Paris 1995 or something.
Fun and important...Couldn't agree more.
It's even more fun when there aren't any notes on the front or back of the pictures. About 30 years ago I was going through photos with my grandfather. He held up a snapshot of two young women, sitting on a curb on a bridge, circa 1920's. "That's your grandmother and her girlfriend on a trip to Chicago". I of course asked which one was grandma and got the response "I can't tell." So that's what I wrote on the back.
ReplyDeleteMy other grandmother had several "funny books" as she called her photo albums. Most of the older photos didn't have any names or notes because of course -she- knew who they all were!
/
L.J.
L.J.
DeleteHaven't had a chance to dig in to the pictures themselves yet. The separator sticky notes all have comments on them, so I've got high hopes. We'll see what's what.
Long day, long drive, but I'm back.
ReplyDeleteI'll do something for Thursday, promise.
BTW, nice post!
Sarge,
DeleteWell...1) I'm glad you're back safe and sound and refreshed and refueled.
2) Writing daily is a heckuva lot harder than I thought it was.
3) That having been said, I had fun, so thanks.
Welcome home, now...Get to work!
;-)
All of my old photo collections just amaze me. They're like a time capsule from another planet in some ways. I loved your experience here with yours, juvat.
ReplyDelete~ BBC
DeleteBBC,
DeleteThanks.
Great idea for a post- all the old WWII-era stuff from my SeaBee grandfather. Even if I don't post them, I need to digitize them. I had planned on moving all my Hi-8 tapes to CD/DVD when I retired, but spent all my terminal leave looking for work. Fortunately my wife had them converted a few years back. One of these days I'll actually watch them.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, and I think you are far too kind with your "Tuna's got a good one tomorrow." Random musings is all.
DeleteTuna,
DeleteThere's always tomorrow...Until there isn't. That's the lesson I'm learning from this exercise.
Tuna,
DeleteI find your "random musings".....Interesting, So assessment is on target.
Families are important, and sadly, most people today know almost nothing about those from whom they have descended.
ReplyDeleteDigitizing images is great, and sharing is great.
To take it to the next step, some looking into genealogy can be interesting, revealing and inspiring.
Ancestry.com is a tremendous resource and the assets there are unbelievable, especially at the higher (and more expensive) levels which include newspaper files and even access to all sorts of European records. Even the basic level can get you through most American ancestors.
In addition, it is a tremendous tool for historical research, especially for artifacts with some sort of named provenance.
Linking the images with facts, dates and places makes them so much more important to understanding our origins.
And, you can upload your images to Ancestry where others can enjoy them and discover their own heritage.
John Blackshoe
John,
DeleteHadn't thought of that angle. Might have to look into that after I get a bit further down the current road.