My friend Clairz started a second blog recently (my God! Isn’t retirement great! Can’t wait until I have that kind of time…LOL) where she has been posting old family and childhood stories and pictures. In this entry she was talking about several generations of family and posted two photographs – one from 1977 and one much more recent. Although different, the similarities of the pose was striking and made me think what a great double picture frame it would make. Then Clairz wrote this comment:
Interestingly enough, my own grandchildren posed for a similar photo in California, not too many years ago. They live a wonderfully healthy lifestyle, as their home is situated in a dead-end court where the neighborhood kids join in playing ball and riding bikes--not so different from my own childhood. Except, as my son would say, their life is in color.
This got me to thinking about things in my life related to photographs, family and life in general. Way back when, life was simpler, slower and maybe carried more depth but it is difficult not to remember it in some sort of black and white way. The memories are fuzzy, low contrast, worn out. As I have been getting prepared for retirement, I have spent a great deal of time remembering and reliving those moments, sometimes without feeling fulfilled. One preparation we have started to make in our move to retirement is to go through old pictures. We had way too many snapshots of half people, orange grass, fuzzy focus landscapes. We weeded through and tossed and put aside for others and just relived a few things.
(The Hulser 4, Christmas about 1964)
(The Hulser 5, about 1966)
(The Hulser 5, 1987)
My life is so much more different now however. A wife with which to share the memories we plan to make. Loving kids who have their whole lives ahead of them. Friends waiting for us to get to New Mexico. Now I look at some family photos posted on Facebook and realize that my life too is now in color and I am coloring it more and more each day. And this is a good thing.
Thanks Clairz and Mrsfabp for friendship and inspiration and support.
(The Hulser 5, 2010)
2 comments:
Awww, this is such a sweet post, Peng.
I'm meeting with Fred and Helen and Jean and maybe Jeffrey (!) tonight for supper at International Delights. We will set aside three places for Beez and you and Mrs.FabP, because you all belong right there with us, talking and laughing and smelling the good desert air. All in good time...
When Ben was little, btw, he really believed that my childhood was lived in black and white, since that is the only way he had ever seen it represented!
P.S. Remember is actually the third blog (don't forget the recipe blog!).
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