The Minnesota Farm Woman

We have a lot of pictures at our house. By a lot, I mean A LOT. There is an entire dresser in the guest room which is stuffed full, plus a tote taking up room in the closet. These days, pictures are digital and many can be sorted and stored on a computer, in a cloud, on a disc, or on a flash drive that fits right into the computer when you need it and doesn’t use up all the memory. Several shots can be taken, viewed, and if the pictures not any good, can be deleted. My own personal rule is that any photo of me with more than one chin must be deleted immediately. Since we are the parents of an only child, we recorded every event, every birthday, and practically every breath of her life. We brought them to the drug store to be developed, and often received “free” double prints so we could send copies to her doting grandparents. I couldn’t bear to throw a single photo away. I also inherited my parents’ photographs. My sister, who knows me for the sucker that I am, told me that I had to take them. I have albums, envelopes, and boxes of both black and white and kodachrome photos of old relatives and friends, many of whom I don’t even know. I have plenty of faded scenic photographs of long-ago vacations. I had asked the folks years ago to write on the backs of the photos so future generations would know who and what they were, and they each did about ten. That leaves only 4,984 for me to do. Along with the old photographs, my parents’ collection contains all those extra prints that my sister and I sent them over the years. My project this past winter was to make an attempt to sort through, organize, and WRITE ON THE BACKS of the pictures. Let me tell you, even a long Minnesota winter wasn’t long enough to finish a project such as this. I have mailed several packets of photos to old friends of my parents. I threw away a large stack of blurry or otherwise useless or unrecognizable photos. I filled a large bag of unknowns for my sister and cousins to help identify. I filled an even larger bag for my daughter with photographs of her, her friends, and her friends’ friends. I took photos of the photos and posted them on Facebook for everyone to enjoy. I should have realized long ago that parents and grandparents are not around forever, so I hope you can learn from my mistakes. Sit down with them and go over your family photographs sooner rather than later. I know that you must have boxes and albums of them sitting around gathering dust just as we did. Get a magnifying glass to help them identify the subjects, and WRITE ON THE BACKS as you go along. I am certain that there will be plenty of stories to go along with the pictures, too. Write them down, record them, or keep them in your memories to tell your own grandchildren. You won’t be sorry. I think my project will stretch over at least one more winter. In the meantime, thanks to modern technology of cropping and pasting photos side by side, I found a rather uncanny family resemblance. (Me, about 1962 and Mom, about 1929)