Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Looking At Pictures

Some years ago I made a scan of 500 and some pictures from one of my Mom's old photo albums. The pictures were ones that Grandma took -- some of them. Others that other members of the family must have snapped, particularly the ones that had Grandma in them.

It's always interesting to look back and see these people, many of them dead now. (Except Grandma, of course.) That's what I'm thinking all the time when I look at them now, how many have passed on. Uncles, aunts, like my aunt that died in November or December. Cousins even. I have one cousin anyway who died.

I have another cousin -- who I haven't seen for years -- who had some serious trouble with the law. Some of his pictures are in those 537 scans. I look at him, all prim and proper in his suit and tie and think, something went wrong with him. Maybe it was destined in his upbringing. He was adopted into the family, my uncle seems like he might have been a strict kind of guy, my aunt maybe not the greatest. I really don't know. Maybe the uncle wasn't strict, maybe the aunt was the greatest. I'm just going by feelings, especially about the aunt, that I myself had growing up.

There are cousins I was especially close to, and that doesn't include this particular one. It's amazing to look back at them. Plus, when you make a scan, the picture comes up on the computer at about 3 times the original photo, so you can see a lot more detail.

No comments: