memories in A Box
I sat at the table with a cup of coffee pouring over boxes of photos. I have never been very good at organizing so over the years a lot of photos just went into boxes. I have a few albums and I always meant to put names and dates on the backs of the photos… but I didn’t. So I sat at the table, boxes in front of me, with renewed determination to organize the photos. However, I got lost in reminiscing about times when my kiddos were little. I pulled out photos of my oldest son when he was three and laughed at how much his 3-year-old son looks like him and acts like him! I smiled in delight with thoughts of my little boy playing in the woods of the Pacific Northwest peninsula which we called home at the time.
Building photoalbums
Photos bring families together and create memories that can be shared.
“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.”
— Aaron Siskind
After a bit, I was joined by my youngest son (now 25) at the table and we laughed over the old photos and reminisced together about special times. He questioned me about a few of the photos he didn’t remember, found some of him as a baby and growing up and laughed at his “long hair” stage. Then there were photos where we played “guess who” games. The kiddos looked so much alike at different stages in their life some of the photos we just couldn’t guess who was who. We talked about the days in Washington, found photos of the houses we lived in Auburn, Maple Valley and Ollala. Pictures of our favorite spots, like Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, our favorite parks on Puget sound, and the many soccer fields and baseball parks. Good times. He left, and I was going to pack away the photos, but instead I left them out to show my granddaughter.
Grandma & Granddaughter
A few days later my granddaughter was over and we were at the table looking through the photos, she pointed out her Aunties and Uncles. She giggled at the photos of her daddy and agreed that her brother looked just like him.
After shuffling through photos for quite some time she coxed me to play a game with her. I thought back to my childhood and remembered looking through the albums of when my parents were little and hearing the stories of their adventures.
This is where my love of photography began. Pouring through the black and whites that told stories of a time long ago. Now everything is digital. We take pictures on our phones, but the days of looking through photo albums are all but gone.
Making Memories...
Every year I plan to upload photos to a book, but I never quite get it done. It’s a little sad, that I can’t sit and flip through memory books from when the kids were older. This year I have made it a goal to start memory books for my grandkids. So throughout the year each month, I am going to put photos into a file so that I can easily move them into a book for them.
Do you prioritize making memory books or feel like they are important? Maybe you feel too busy, or it isn’t important because they’re stored on the phone. But whenever I have family over the photo albums and boxes come out. The kids and grandkids gather around, and they all laugh over childhood moments.
Photos bring people together, we hold memories in our hands, bonding as we relive the moments. This was one of the reasons why I put together “Watch Them Grow”. It includes 4 sessions over a year period. This is a perfect way to gather photos for a memory book. Slide in some of your own precious memories and you have a book full of precious memories to share with your kids, and years later your grandkids.
