Himself: Swam, got the drawers done and the doors on. Painting everything today. Herself: Swam, meeting, finished putting photos on RW/DVD’s. Rewrote poem. Very IBS’ish after dinner. Reading: A new old Cadell. Balance: Reading. |
I talked to some of the photographs as I scanned them.
“Look at the camera.” But did Gimpa have his hearing aids turned on. He was in his middle 90’s here, but his brain was still very functional. Instead he looks absent. Vacant. Some one should have poked him. Smile Dad. Smile Gimpa.
Auntie M looks lovely. Cousin T looks so young. Uncle C looks so solemn. All captured in time.
Then there are the questions. Is that a large Southern Potteries platter up high behind them on the wall? Why is one person eating off a tray?
All the pictures I scanned bring up questions. Cuz T can’t answer questions for the older pictures like why are both children very angry in this shot with their grandfather? Children were to be seen and not heard, and these two are seen down the ages with no explanation. My mother appears beyond stubborn here, and Uncle C is standing apart with body language that’s pretty clear stuff.
We will never know, darn it. I mailed off four DVD’s yesterday, gave one to each kid, am waiting to hear from any parents who want a copy, and am putting away my scanner for a while. Grandma Maudie’s pictures of my father wait over there on top of the scanner, but I have a quilt to start and a poem or two to write before I return to scanning. Perhaps I will even take a day or two off in there somewhere.
When I look at old photographs, the story of each in the picture has (usually) already been written. But he or she didn't know the end of their story as I do now. I wonder what they would have to say had they known? And I too keep discovering things--like you and the platter up high and the tray. Sometimes those things seem to be part of a larger puzzle I keep trying to fit together about the voids in my childhood memory. But it's such fun, even without the answers--only those I know (the end of their story) which they didn't. If I was your neighbor, I'd want to be right there, scanning alongside you! even though I wouldn't know the people.
ReplyDeleteThose children are in the most uncomfortable clothes and I am sure that they have been told to keep everything clean!
ReplyDeleteI love these photos!!!!
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