Capture the Good Times

Day 15 - An Old Photo of You - 

Pictures are like quotes and music to me. I hoard them.  Luckily, thanks to Shutterfly, Pinterest and Google Play I can hoard all three electronically. Since we've switched to digital photos I don't have to hoard them in plastic tubs under the bed with all of the negatives.  I do, however, miss real pictures.  I miss going through the plastic tubs, the feel of a picture in your hand, the knowledge that you have to be careful with that picture because if the negative is gone, there is no getting it back.  

The thing about photos is they help you remember things you have forgotten.  Music does that too, but music helps you remember a feeling, pictures help you remember a time or an event.  Pictures help you remember people you haven't seen in years, or people who are no longer with us.  Pictures remind you that you were once much younger than you are now and that you probably shouldn't get that haircut ever again. Pictures reveal emotions that are sometimes hidden or missed when you are in the moment. Pictures are powerful in a way that not many things are.  I don't ever get rid of pictures, real or electronic, you may never know when you need the memory.  

I take pictures all the time and of everything.  I post hundreds of pictures to Facebook.  Pictures of myself and of anyone else.  I don't understand people who don't like to have their photo taken.  I love it.  When I have a picture (or 100) that means that I am never going to forget that day.  I will be able to pull that picture out in 30 years to remind me of the people that I was with and the times we had. If I take enough pictures PJ will never forget the first year he played baseball, or any of the other years.  He'll always remember the trip to Hawaii when he was three because he'll be able to pull the memory out of the picture.  Even more important is that I will always remember those times.  We spend so much time getting caught up in life that we forget that our children were once babies, and that we were once young. We take for granted the fact that time is passing.  Pictures give us a perspective on life that not many other things can.  

This is me with my great grandparents, grandparents, parents, great aunt, uncle and second cousin. My guess is that it's probably the summer of 1984.  I love this picture.  There aren't very many of all of us in one place. 

Also probably the summer of 1984.  Gus, the dog, was the best dog in the whole world.  He loved me in a way that only a dog can, from the moment I came home from the hospital.  He used to let me water him, do somersaults over his back and pretty much anything else I wanted.

Me and my brother Morgan. There's probably 10 years between these pictures. We were so cute.

Proof I've always like to have my picture taken. Lol.