Monday, October 18, 2010

Real people

Nowadays we paste our family photos in digital picture files. Gone are the times of sorting snapshots and placing them in mounting corners against the black pages in albums.

I treasure my grandmother’s photo album. It has pictures of my father as a small boy, some beach snaps with my dad and mother in their bathing suits, and pictures of my Nana holding little me.

I still love the fabric covered scrapbook I made in Brownie Scouts. I was diligent and pasted in class photos and pictures with friends for quite a few years. Thank goodness I did that. It is organized and compact and a fine way to remember the past.

Of course many of us have special photos displayed here and there at home. Those are good for morning hellos and nighttime nods as we walk by. I do this. Do you?

Yesterday, there was a gathering to remember Judy a year after her death. She was a member of the Greek Orthodox Church and this is their custom. She was honored at the church and then her priest and close friends from the community gathered for lunch. Judy’s sister and the rest of the family are glad to adopt Greek customs that we like.

It was a perfect misty day in the Bay Area hills. It was cozy inside. The Greeks drink a quick shot of brandy and say a toast to begin the celebration on most occasions. We were happy to follow that ritual.
I took some family photos near the end of the afternoon. I just love these people. I’ll store them in my “blog album.” But will my children and grandchildren be able to thumb through them years from now? I doubt it.

Labels: , , , ,

5 Comments:

Blogger Vicky aka Stichr said...

this digital age is so different, thats for sure!!

11:51 AM  
Blogger JoAnn ( Scene Through My Eyes) said...

Lovely memories. I like the paper photos too - but I've scanned all of them - hundreds and hundreds - to make digital albums for our kids and grandsons. I make notes by the photos so they will know who it is and what is going on - in that way I like digital a LOT. It was time consuming - but worth it - and now all three kids have copies of all the family photos at almost no cost (had to buy the DVDs to put the albums on is all) and will have them for years to come and can look back and enjoy the family tree.

2:11 PM  
Blogger black bear cabin said...

i have my blog printed each year in a book for the family...sort of like a yearbook of the black bear cabin :) theyre really quite fun to have around the house, and jordyn likes looking thru them. i also have books printed for special occasions, but i do love to scrapbook too. i do a lot of photography, so i have huge digital files, but i try to print batches of pictures often to send to family and friends. Being able to send them right away are great, but i like hard copies too. My mom always complains that she doesnt have any to carry around in a brag book, so i always make sure to send her some. i am sad that most folks dont have pictures printed anymore...i hope it doesnt become a lost art!

7:44 PM  
Blogger black bear cabin said...

p.s. the celebration for Judy sounds like it was wonderful! a great way to celebrate a life!

7:48 PM  
Blogger Meggie said...

I agree with you, we will probably be lost to sight in photographs, with this new digital age. Apart from portraits, which in our family, are very rare.
We always loved going through our mother's collection of old family photos, but it seems our children are not as interested.

3:13 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home