Looking Through My Old Pictures...

My mom used to listen to  a song called "Old Pictures" by The Judds.  One of the lines went like this...

"Looking through my old pictures, faded photographs
Some of them bring me close to tears, others make me laugh
Old memories, seem to come alive
And open up the past again and let me dream inside."

I have so many pictures.  I am not computer literate enough to be one of those people who download and backup files.  I will admit that some of my photos are on my computer, but the majority of them are in plastic boxes, cardboard boxes, ziplock bags, suitcases.  I once tried to get the kids pictures into a scrapbook for each of them, and I must admit, they came out very cute.  Then life happened, we took more pictures and we have pictures galore.

A friend of mine recently sent me an old picture from high school.  It brought a smile to my face because aside from the fact my best friend was Aqua Net Hairspray, I thought I dressed cute, but really, I was kinda homely!  I thought iridescent shoes were cute back in the day, but a picture tells me differently.  I thought a sweatshirt and leggings would totally land me a guy and now I almost gag at how I looked back then.  The thing about it though is this, I would not change anything.  No matter how my hair was or what I was wearing I was making memories.

Sometimes we forget about the memories we have made in our lives, especailly as we get older.  It's funny how you can forget about something entirely and then you find a picture and you are suddenly transported back in time remembering little details of that picture.

I look at old pictures of my mom and dad way before I was born.  There is my mom so glamorous and dressed so pretty sitting on my dad's lap with his arms around her.  They looked like they were so in love.  Then there are pictures of my siblings and I growing up and my sister holding me in her arms when I was so little.  She said to me I have always been like her baby.  A picture of my mom on her wedding day to Pappy (my stepfather) when they married in Las Vegas, older but with happiness on her face.  There's a picture of my husband and I when we celebrated our first new years eve.  There was a look of newness on our faces, not knowing what the future would hold. 

One of my most favorite pictures is that of my son looking down at my daughter and she is looking up at him.  It is a black and white photo and it is timeless.  It captures their youth before time and age separated them as friends.  Sure I still sometimes catch them sharing a brother sister moment laughing with each other, but those times are rare and I miss that.  That picture is in my house and on my desk to remind me of happiness.

Old pictures are like therapy.  They can make you cry, they can make you smile, they can make you feel things you forgot about and even things you don't want to remember.  I have pictures hanging in my closet, pictures hanging in my house, in my wallet, on  my desk.  I will never grow tired of my pictures.  They are where I came from, where I have been and where I am going.