The apple never falls far from the tree.
My mother used to say that a lot. Mostly it was in reference to children’s bad habits that mimic the bad habits of the parents but not always.
The past few months I have been wrestling with a family picture project. I have blogged about it. I have two shoeboxes full of old photos of my parents, their siblings and a very few of my grandparents. That’s all, just two shoeboxes to cover 50 years.
Many of the photos are taken from a distance and are blurry. On some the face is in a shadow. There are wrinkles (on the photos not the faces) and blotches. Not the best photos. None of them would even get an honorable mention at an exhibition of old photos.
The project itself has brought back many wonderful memories and with that comes wistful longing for those days. It was my childhood which was mostly good. (Hey, I can’t complain about bad hair days when I was a child, can I?)
Summer picnics, big parties, kegs of root beer (and other stuff which I wasn’t allowed to touch), hot dogs and all kinds of wonderful ethnic food.
There were a few surprises. My Dad was a very handsome man. He died when I was ten so to me he was just Dad. In looking at pictures of him when he was young, he was pretty gorgeous.
My handsome father as a young man.
My Mom didn’t like her picture taken. That means I don’t have a lot of pictures of her. She was not a thin person – not overly big – just large enough that photos weren’t complimentary. That is a real shame. To me, my mother was beautiful but I have so few photos to admire.
My mother as a schoolgirl.
I am always amazed at how young all these aunts and uncles were once. I know that sounds silly but when your memory is of folks in the 60s and 70s and 80s looking their age (or older), you forget that they were once….well….young.
My aunts being young and carefree!
Here are my parents with my oldest brother, circa winter 1929.
The worst part is that I have so few pictures. Many people especially women start to hide from pictures as they age. They will take thousands of photos of their children but run from the camera. Why?
Maybe we see ourselves as we were around age 25. Maybe it’s the recognition of aging. Maybe we’re nuts. (I vote for that one.) The ultimate shame is that there are no pictures for children and grandchildren to remember.
About that apple, just like my mother, I don’t like my picture taken either. For me it’s not about weight but that flat two-dimensional photo doesn’t look like what I see in the mirror. In decades to come when someone else is trying to put together a photo album, I probably won’t be in it!
In order to be helpful I am posting three pictures of me. They are also not great photos. The last one has my new eye makeup (yes, I know you can’t see it!) This should do for posterity.
Here I am with the Christmas tree at age 7
Here I am at age 40
Here I am today at 66.
Views and Mews by Coffee Kat 
Wow! That’s some spread in ages between you and your oldest brother.
I don’t always cooperate with camera wielding folks because, really, everything is NOT a Kodak Moment. I would make a terrible celebrity ~ when the paparazzi started snapping away, I’d SNAP right back. 😀
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May I look so great when I’m 66! In the last 20 years I’ve weighed from 115 pounds to 330 pounds (crazy right?). I hate my fat pictures but I make myself get in the picture anyway because the memories are important to me. It drives me nuts–start getting in the pictures! That’s what you wished your mom had done–she was beautiful in everyone’s eyes but her own.
We need to talk. My dad died when I was nine and I too have precious few pictures of him. We seem to have way too much in common…
On the subject of family history read A Quack’s Daughter by Greta Nettleton. Amazing book and amazing woman!
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I was ten when my Dad died. My mother lost her father at age nine. It was hard to grow up without a father. I know that these days, there are many families like that but back then, it was unusual. I will check out the book! Thanks for stopping by.
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I’m trying hard to forgive you for looking so good, Kate. It’s people like you who encourage people like me to avoid the camera. 🙂
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It’s the uncanny resemblance to Meg Ryan!
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I’m so glad you shared your photos, Kate, and with the accompanying message! Your sense of humor and kindness seems to have melted the years away! 🙂
I completely agree with you about the “hiding” out. I have avoided photos for a long time. For one thing, I tend to not like them, but then at times I’m the family photographer and I take time with staging a photo of other adults, but when I hand the camera to my husband or daughter or someone else, they snap it in two minutes and usually catch me in the most unflattering pose possible. BUT, I have two granddaughters. And I have been almost forcing myself to get over my ego here, and just BE. They won’t care one day that my hair looks silly or I didn’t take off my glasses or dental work shows! Thanks for this message today. And I just feel the wistfulness you’re sharing. In the end our memories and photos are all we have. Yes, your dad was wonderfully handsome! ox
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I love looking at old photos. As for having my picture taken, I’m just like you, I don’t like it either. That one of you at 7 is adorable! And the last one, beautiful!
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You look great! But then, you might say the same about me…but we never think we ourselves look great, especially after a certain age. Thanks for a post that made me think!
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Of course,. growing up in a time when you had to buy a roll of film, then use it sparringly. Then in the 1980’s we got the 1houy processing on every street corner – and free film back everytime led tothe number of pictures of freinds and relatives increasing enormously. Today the ubiquitous digital camera allows for shot after shot, many of which are seldom seen or printed, but some them appearing on Facebum and being seen by thousands of people.
I have just 3 pictures of me when I ws young. Two of my father and three of my mother. But I must have about 200 hundred pictures of my children as they are growing up. It’s great fun to flip through them.
It has recently been etsimated that of all the photographs ever taken, 50 per cent of them were taken last year!
Incidently, you look simply splendid in your contempory picture.
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Oh how true! All the pictures of me as a young adult were vacation pictures because that’s when you took pictures. The second one (me at 40) was really the edge of a picture where I was looking into a museum at Salem Massachusetts. I liked the lighting so I cropped it to use but it wasn’t taken to be a photo of me.
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Your dad was really a hottie! I see you must get your swag from him 🙂
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Yeah, he did have swag!
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Kate, these pictures are fabulous and your observations truly meaningful. The 3 photos of you are especially beautiful!
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You were and are lovely all the way Kate… your gravatar or whatever is the pic you use on your blog doesn’t so you justice
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Thanks! Periodically I have my husband takes some shots but they always look like me!
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The camera loves you – don’t hide!
It is fascinating to see the “younger days” pictures – I was the youngest of all the cousins and relative – many died before I was born. Any photo is precious
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Gosh, I thought you looked like a computer mouse! Go on, post a photo!
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there’s actually one in a post – but finding that is an adventure…best for me to keep a low profile…but Molly is perfectly willing to pose
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Dogs like to pose more than cats do. I have a lot of photos of cat’s back ends.
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I love this post Kate. The old photos make me want to cry for all that lost youth, your handsome Dad, your sweet faced Mom, and the carefree Aunts. You, Kate, are simply beautiful from childhood to right now. Save this post for posterity for sure. 🙂
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Old photos make me homesick for those days.
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I have always said that since there are almost no photos of me, when they have to print the folders for my funeral they will have to use my driver’s license photo. You, however, are beautiful and there should be more photos of you.
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Ahhh, the driver’s license photo! OMG! Believe it or not, we have a good camera here and those are some of my best photos.
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I am the worst offender of dodging the camera in our house. This really has me re-thinking that decision. One day my daughter might be going through just like you and would hate for her to be disappointed. You are beautiful as are your photos!
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And I am sure you are too. We are just hard on ourselves (although I really believe that going 2-dimensional is hard on the face!).
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You were, and are, most beautiful. Go ahead a let peeps take your picture!
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Thanks but I still have a camera phobia.
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I think the only thing sadder than having no pictures is having a box of photos of people that we don’t even know. When my grandparents moved off the farm, my Dad (their oldest) was given a box of photos — threshing photos, young ladies being carefree like your aunts were above, etc. And no one alive now knows who they are = but they were dear enough to someone to snap their photo. Makes me sad.
Like others have said .. you’re a beautiful lady then and now 🙂
Cheers!
MJ
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I had a lot of those too. I had my brother who is much older than me and could identify some, look them over. If he didn’t know who they were and I didn’t, out they went. I wished that people would have noted on the back who was in the picture and the date. That would have been wonderful.
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Like us, they probably never dreamed of a day that they’d be gone and no one would remember. Good luck with your project!
MJ
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What? People won’t remember us? That’s just wrong!
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Now, Kate, you stop that … you are beautiful. When I look back, I see my younger self in a much different light and wonder why we all are so hard on ourselves. Give your family photographers a break and let them snap away. You’ll be giving them something to treasure.
I, apparently, am our family’s historian as I have all the family photos. What isn’t in the albums have been posted by my brother on Facebook. Good luck to you as you organize the photos.
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I am trying to decide whether to do a hard copy photo book for family members or to post on the internet so family can access it there. Not sure which way I’ll go.
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Hey Kate…stopped by to say hello. I love the pictures. You are so, so pretty then and now. To sum it up, you’re a very polished apple. Thanks for sharing them.
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Thanks for stopping by and thanks for the compliments!
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You’re most welcome. Will stop by again 🙂
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Beautiful! I have two baskets of photos that I have no idea where to begin and how to organize them. I have one photo of my grandmother with her sisters and husband. It is framed and I always think they have so many stories to tell.
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It really is overwhelming. I wallowed in the photos for a couple of weeks because I didn’t know what to do, which ones to pick or how to arrange them.
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It find it very tough – each picture seems to hold so many wonderful memories.
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It really IS a shame that we tend to avoid being photographed as we get older … I have avoided the camera for many, many years (weight, shame) and now, when I look back at photos of fun family times, I’m always conspicuously absent from all the photos. The last photo I have of myself that I actually kind of liked was when my youngest son was a toddler (30 plus years ago). In a hundred years, it would be hard to prove I existed past the age of 30-35, but here I still am, in my mid-fifties, and still hiding from the camera. Too bad.
By the way, if I looked as pretty as you do in the photo above, I wouldn’t be hiding from any cameras. You have a very nice smile, and even though we can’t see the new make up, you still have a happy glow that kind of sparkles in the photo. Isn’t it silly how we avoid the camera?
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Yes it is silly the dance we do with that camera. I have been following you for a while so I remember when you had a picture on your blog. As I remember you were smiling pretty blonde lady!
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Ms. Kate, I must say not a wrinkle on the face. You are so beautiful to me. Love those old pictures of family. Thanks for sharing.
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Seeker, you are so sweet. There are laugh crinkles at my eyes but I worked very hard to earn them laughing over the years.
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