Interwoven Stories

For the past year or so, I have been scanning old slides and photographs onto my computer, and I've become intrigued by the photos of my grandparents, parents and other relatives when they were younger and of the lives they led before they became the title I have for them.

My paternal Grandmother passed away when my Dad was in college.  I have her name and her coloring, but have never seen a photograph of her.

My paternal Grandfather, Pop as everyone called him, passed when I was 5.  I have fleeting memories of sitting in his lap and how big he was.

Pop, after a bird hunt

My maternal Grandfather passed away when my Mom was a child.  In reading old letters and seeing pictures of him, I have his eye coloring and his dry sense of humor.

A photograph that I had never seen until I started scanning of my maternal Grandfather

My maternal Grandmother passed away before I was six.  I remember eating bread and milk out of these great aluminum glasses, pink peppermint candies, and the cepachol mouthwash in her bathroom.

My maternal Grandmother, Amy

In scanning the photographs, I have seen more pictures of my Grandparents that I even knew existed.  Sure, they were in albums ready for my viewing at any time or in slides, but I never really took the time to see them.  For me, history is boring if it's dates and charts of names and birthdates, but give me a personal memory, a photograph or a journal and I'll dive right in.  The reason why I started scanning...no one had a slide viewer anymore and we were going to lose the memories.  The snowball started with that, so I then looked at old photo albums and realized, we were losing the pictures as well, due to age.

After learning more about my Grandparents, I started in on my parents photos.  We enter our parents lives with their stories well in progress.  If we're lucky, we learn about the stories that lead them to the points were we enter their lives.  The trouble they got into as kids; their achievements; their disappointments; and their dreams.

My Mom grew up in Orderville, Utah, graduated from college at the age of 40, taught First Grade for 27 years, and fostered my love of reading.  Girls, I think, are more apt to have journals and scrapbooks, so I have been going through my mom's.  I have learned things that I would of never have known by scanning them.  Memories have been brought back for her and I've met the child, teenager and young adult that she was.  It's been really amazing.

My Mom, back in the day

My Dad grew up in Pine Mountain, Georgia,  graduated from Georgia Tech, was in Army, blew a lot of stuff up in his career, and can build anything you ask him for.  I asked him not too long ago, if he had any old photos or things of the like from his childhood and he told me that there wasn't anything to do.....nothing remained or he did have them.  It dang near broke my heart, because in learning about his past, I would of learned even more about him...

My Dad, back in the day

My parents divorced when I was 16....
it took a long time for me to realize that while they were not right for each other,
they are the perfect parents for me.

I am not done scanning photos and old documents of my parents and now I've even started on the photographs I've taken of friends and my life throughout the years.  I don't want to lose these memories and it is my privilege to save them.

A little introspective,
Melissa