Old Pictures

As my wife and I approach our twenty year wedding anniversary, I've had occasion to browse through old photos of our time together. I mostly only look at the last decade or so since that's about the time we bought our first digital camera. Having an archive of pictures online and accessible from my laptop makes taking the occasional stroll down memory lane pretty simple. It's been so enjoyable that I briefly considered going through all our old albums and scanning their contents. It would be great to have digital access to everything but when I think about the amount of effort it would take I can't see it ever happening. I guess I need a more compelling reason before I'm going to work that hard.

Looking at old photos of one's self can be a humbling experience. A number of times I've looked at a picture and thought, "What am I wearing?" Apparently, we must have gone for some time without any full length mirrors in our house. That's the only explanation I can come up with for some of my wardrobe choices. I actually renamed one file "awkward.jpg". It's a shot from long ago of my wife and I standing near some trees at a state park. She looks great. Me, not so much. I'm wearing some almost powder blue shorts that are just a wee bit too short and just a little too snug. I'm not certain if the snugness is behind odd posture I've chosen. It's as if the upper and lower halves of my body couldn't decide if they should face my wife or the camera. It's makes me uncomfortable but I'm thinking about printing it and placing it in my bedroom as a reminder to honestly check the mirror when dressing for the day. I feel bad for the goofball in the photo, even worse when I remember how much I liked those shorts and how often I wore them - in public.

Browsing through the years, I can watch my hair thin a little, gray a lot. My weight went up then down then up again and then back down. Beards came and went. I parted my hair on the left because the right side receded more. Eventually, the left side was worse and so I started parting on the right. Finally, I went with a shorter cut that doesn't really part anywhere. My wife went through a variety of hair styles from short to medium length, straight to permed. It's easier to note changes in fashion from my wife's picture - shoulder pads, floral prints, etc.. If you just looked at me, you might think fashion was fairly static for quite awhile. Apparently, for about five years, I only had one shirt I deemed appropriate for special occasions. At least, I assume that's the reason I'm wearing it in posed Christmas photos from multiple years.

The last time I was looking at these pictures, my sons joined me. They seemed to enjoy seeing what Mom and Dad used to look like. To them I'm sure we've always kind of looked like we do now. For the most part that's true but I think it's good to remind them that we were once younger. It hopefully gives us a little more credibility when we try to help them with the many issues involved with growing up. My younger son has known us for the shortest amount of time so, to him, the old pictures seemed the most foreign. He relied on his brother for confirmation that these were indeed Mom and Dad. Apparently, he thinks this is the sort of thing I might try to fool him with. Even though I was sitting with them, I tried to remain silent as I pulled up different images. It was fun to listen to their reactions. Here's a snippet I remember from a shot of me during some of my heavier days:

N: Is that really Dad?
B: Yeah.
N: Really? Because it kind of looks like Dad but not really.
B: Yeah. (pauses and looks at me) I don't think you were running much back then.

Only to the refrigerator.