Happy Easter 2021 - Old Photographs

Well, it has been a long and interesting and challenging year from March of 2020 to April of 2021. I won't get into the politics of it, because that isn't what this blog is about, and we have all had more than enough of the Pandemic, although I will take a moment to say that this past Wednesday, I closed out the month of March by getting my second inoculation of the Pfizer vaccine at the Mooestown Mall Mega Site. It was not quite as eerie as going for the first shot when I entered the process and the old abandoned Lord and Taylor Store for the first time. This time, I knew the ropes and I didn't have the fresh eye of the first timer. What was new, however was the enormous relief I felt when I left. I had no idea of the burden I had been carrying for a year until after my second shot and the burden of fear fell off my shoulders.

Again, I was fortunate and had no bad reaction to the inoculation. Many people I have heard about and have talked to have not been so lucky and have reported sore arms and muscle and joint pain. Some said they were wiped out for a day or two. I was perfectly fine - or at least as fine as I was before the shot.

But what I wanted to talk about today, was old photographs which I love with a romantic passion. Before my Grandmother Mabel died, she gave me a wooden box with old family photographs of hers in it, two of them date back to the early days of photography in the 1800's; they are her parents, Catherine Sandman and William Adam Young and Ipresume it must be wedding photographs or sometime around then 1884. I have old photographs from my mother's side of the family too, her parents and the early days of my own parent'ss marriage. My parents photographs ae from the second World War when my father was in the navy and stationed in Florida. They are so beautiful and carefree and young that it breaks my heart, but I am consoled when I think of what long and happy lives they had after the war when so many others lost their lives. My parents got to buy successively larger houses, move to the suburbs, plant a vegetable garden, grill on my father's elaborite brick backyard grill, swim in pools, have children and watch them all grow up, and they got to celebrate their lives in many ways. I have photographs of many of those ways, but surprisingly few from our many road trip vacations.

I was given a camera very early on and I took photographs from the start and regularly for the rest of my own long an lucky life. More than a decade ago, I began to do family history, and to share it with my siblings and their children, I also began to use the old family photograps. For example, I had a somewhat amusing photograph of my cousin Patty and I, around 1955, dressed up and posed in our Easter outfits outside a row home in South Philadelphia which may have been my family's first home. I made copies of it and mounted it on pretty floral scrapbooking paper, framed it, and glued button sized magnets on the back so it would stick to the refrigerator. I sent one to my cousin and put one on my fridge. For Halloween, I copied and hung a dozen old photographs from the 1940's and 50's on black screening and used it for a decoration with some fabric leaves glued on - very attractive. My biggest project was to have postcards made for several holidays from those old photographs - couples for Valentine's day with a red Valentine border, Navy and Marine portraits of my father and brother for Veterans' Day and Memorial Day with a red, white and blue border, and Christmas postcards of my brother and myself with anta around 1950. It wasn't at all expensive - it only cost around $40 for 50 postcards.

This year I came up with another use for some old photographs for Easter. My sister's house burned down 5 years ago in March and she lost most of her family mementos and photographs. From time to time, for the holidays, I make copies of the ones I have and give them to her in albums. For Easter this year, I framed si of them and put them in an Easter Basket protected in the green grass. She can't eat candy and she lives on a farm, so she doesn't need more flowers, so I thought a basket of memories was a good solution. ,p/> One year for Christmas, I gave all my siblings (there are 5 of us) a 2.3 foot framed family tree collage of family photographs which I had scanned and had copied and printed at Belia Copy Center in Woodbury, where I also had my postcards made. NEXT I am thinking of a way to use two dozen small black and white glossy photographs of toddlers who may be my father and his brothers from around 1920 which were mailed to my Cousin Patty by another relative. She had no use for them, but I found them enchanting, especially since those babies became men, had full lives and died, but here they are, forever at the beginning with their bright baby eyes and beautiful baby faces. Whatever Art Project I decide to use them in, I want to title it 100 YEAR OLD BABIES. I am thinking of trying the Mod Podge process of photo transfer onto fabric, maybe a white apron which I happen to have, or a baby blanket - time will give me the answer.

Well I hope this blog entry gives someone an idea of something to do with their old family photographs and as always if you want to converse more with me on this subject you can reach me at wrightjr5@yahoo.com. In the mean time, HAVE A HAPPY EASTER!

Jo Ann