Old photos and Irreplaceable Stories

Do you have piles of old photographs
stashed in boxes and drawers
or in ancient albums that are falling apart?

Do you have stacks of mystery photos
that you can't identify in any way?

I do in spades!
I'm in the midst of
corralling my massive collection.

Fortunately, in the summer of 1968,
I organized Acadia University's
collection of historical photographs.

I know I can corral 
at least five generations of family photos,
even if the prospect is daunting.

I love to play with old photos
to see what I can discover.

Who?  Where?  When? 

This is a dangerous 
because hours of my time
can vanish down a black hole.

Black Hole

Wikimedia

And, sometimes,
the answers pierce my heart.

Yesterday I came across 
two 2½ by 3 inch bits 
of black and white mystery.

The photos were stashed in an album 
my sister Barb lent me,
and they were unrelated 
to any others in the album.

But I was hooked 
by the boats on the water
and the fishermen at work.

Six:  One Moment in Time

Not a clue on the back of the first one,

but on the back of the second:

That's where the marlinspike 

to the heart comes in.

It's my mother's handwriting,

and the date is the day

she and my father married.

They drove down Digby Neck

for their honeymoon

in Sandy Cove, Nova Scotia

on September 4, 1948.

From the correct album:

Don and Sara   

Honeymoon Cottage

Sandy Cove,
Nova Scotia

September 4, 1948

  




We've all captured those moments,
stoping time in its tracks,
so we can hold and remember them keenly.


My parents:  
young, hopeful, just starting out,
capturing the time and place of their joy.

Now, a fading image in black and white,
a trick of light and chemical fixed in time.

Irreplaceable and real people
behind mystery photographs ~
That's what drives me 
as I archive photos and write stories.

Doing this can be piercing,
but I always feel the love, 
the struggle,
the magnificence 
of those I love
who have gone before me.

A Honey Moon Postcard

from Long Ago

So pull out those photos
if you are lucky enough to have them ~

And write down their stories,
if you are lucky enough to know them.

Every human has a story,
and each story illuminates
our collective and complex human heart.