One of my nieces came down from Vermont with her family for a visit this week. We had fun going to the beach, out for ice cream and we took them on a Harbor Cruise. If you’ve never done that it’s a great little tour of New Bedford Harbor that only takes about an hour. You learn some history of our area and get an up close view of the Hurricane Dike, Palmer’s Island Lighthouse and the new wind turbine plant.
My niece, Liz, brought down one of those plastic totes that was filled with pictures they found after my brother died. My brother has already been gone five years now. It doesn’t feel like it’s been that long. His girls had to clean out his place and his storage shed after he died and there was a lot of “stuff.”
My brother was a collector of “stuff.” He used to say that he had the bottle cap off the first beer he ever drank. He had a fire at his house years ago and he kept the melted wall phone from the kitchen. I don’t know why and, no, I haven’t found that in the tote they brought.
What I did find was pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. His girls sent them to me hoping I could identify some of these people. What a trip back in time!
When my mother died, now ten years ago, my brother took all of the old pictures she had. It’s been amazing seeing my parents wedding photo and pictures of mom from the 1940s. Her last few years were filled with doctors appointments and not the best health. It’s so amazing to see her in her youth just happy and healthy.
There’s also plenty of pictures of me and my brother growing up. I’ve mentioned before how my father died when I was only six years old and I have very few memories of him. It’s nice to see us together.
Yup! That’s little Petey!
It’s also wild to see some of the fashions I wore. I was born in 1961 so I had some cool bell bottoms and some “interesting” looks over the years.
And of course, the full head of hair. I told my niece the other day that I used to hate my hair when I was younger. It was very wavy and back then the style was for boys to have straight hair. I tried to smooth it down every day. Now I just wish I had some.
I thought of a Jim Croce song this week while I was going through the pictures. It’s a song called “Photographs and Memories” from 1972. It’s really about a relationship from the past but the title fit this week. The first verse goes:
Photographs and memories
Christmas cards you sent to me
All that I have are these
To remember you
That’s all I have now to remember mom, dad and my brother. We had our issues over the years like I think all families do. However, this week has been fun.
I don’t remember all of the moments that I saw in these pictures but some of them took me right back. If you have a chance this week, take a step back. Remember the good times. Even if things didn’t end well with some family members, I’m sure there were happy times. Hold on to that.
Let’s be thankful for the special moments we had.
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