Photos from a generation long gone

Going through old photographs of one and one’s family is an emotional experience. The older the pictures are the greater amounts of sentiments are aroused. Forgotten memories, events come rushing back to memory; vivid and crystal clear. Join in with the people who share those saved memories with you and the experience becomes richer.

However how does one feel if one opens an album of a generation gone; black and white, sepia and fuzzy memoires on cards………. I recently laid my hands on a collection of such albums. Being an avid fan of photography for daily life events a frequent viewer of my albums I had no idea what a mixed emotional and thought provoking experience laid ahead.

It’s rare in one’s life that a barrage of emotions and thoughts is provoked form such a simple and routine activity. Opening the first few pages of the album I saw my grandparents taking their marital vows. Beautiful, young, shining faces smiling out at me through the black and white. It is difficult imaging your grandparents so young … for me it is yet it fills me with a strange happiness. Following are the infant pictures of my parents, aunts and uncles all dressed in their baby clothes, I am unable to tell the difference between them and my baby cousins today. Next pages have my parents dressed up in bell bottoms and hoods. I can’t keep a smile off my face. Pictures of my grad parents in their farmland and with their first tractor fills me with strange pride.

Suddenly there is a total shift of emotions that I was experiencing, when I saw my parents and some of my uncles celebrating their birthdays and enjoying other parties in the same lawns as I have celebrated my birthdays in my grandparent’s house. Some of the people merry making in these pictures have passed away. However there is something about the smile on their faces and the shine in their eyes portrays lives full of dreams and plans for the future. Other relatives who seem to be close and yet I have never seen or recognize appear frequently. There is sudden realization of how mortal and delicate beings we are. I unconsciously imagine my grandchild browsing through my photographs after I am long gone. These still images hold in them the lively memories of the people gone and all the love they shared. I close the album calming myself down with a thought that life short as it may be has given me same or more love as ancestors before and should cherish all the people and moments while I am living it……