Sunday, February 25, 2007


This picture just stuns me when I look at it. I loved my Grandma so much when I was a child. But she was 'old' lol, she must have been all of mid-sixties when I remember her the most. Old, seem's pretty young to me today!!!.

I love seeing my Dad here, he's the oldest on the right, and my Aunty Florence, wow she was beautiful even as a child, and of course Uncle Bill, my loveable Uncle Willy, I wonder if that little mind was already wondering how to be a stinker at such an early age?????

The journaling here reads:
I love this picture of my Grandma.
Here she is with my Dad, George,
my Aunty Florence and my Uncle Bill.
The back of the picture said Daddy was 4 years 8 months old, Aunty Flo 2 years, 8 months and Uncle Bill 1 year 2 months
I’m so glad she had written their ages so I could pinpoint the time.
This would have been taken in or around Los Angles California.
So many generations I see in these faces, brothers, nephews, neices, grandchildren of my own.

As I have said before and I'll say it again. Please write something about the pictures you take when you take them. Grandma, bless her heart, wrote the ages of these three on the back of this photo. It helped me pinpoint the time and place down to the month and year. So helpful. Years from now all these digital photos we snap so readily will be a quandry to the generations that follow us if we don't journal something about the why's and where's and who's of the picture. When my great-great- grandchildren look through my pictures I hope I learn enough to have left them some inkling of who it is and how they relate to them in my heritage to them.

Pictures are definetly worth a thousand words, and if we take just a little bit of time to add our own to them they will be worth a million!

This was created using Barb Speck's - Grandma's Shoebox Memories. This is a wonderful collection of kits, if you are into doing Heritage I would strongly suggest you check it out at NDISB or SOTB.

These pictures are a collection of ones I had when my Grandma Coulter and Aunty Bea lived in New York City while my Uncle Bill was out to sea (in the Navy aboard the Quick).

The journaling reads:

The framed photo on the right, as well as the smaller ones, were the ones taken in New York City. As close as Mom and I could determine these pictures must be from around 1945 and 1946. During this time my Uncle had reinlisted in the Navy and was at sea a great deal of time on the Destroyer Quick. When my Aunt moved from California to New York my Grandma moved as well. Mom thinks they perhaps lived in the same apartment complex. But the pictures here of Grandma Coutler (which was Uncle Bills Mom) were taken in New York City. I love the wrought iron bars on the windows, the curves of the cement stairs and the beauty of the black and white photos. Make sure you check out Johnny’s stroller! Amazing how times have changed.

The framed photo on the left was taken in El Monte California after the family moved back west when Uncle Bill got out of the Navy. I love Aunty Beas shoes! She was a tiny little thing probably 4’10 or so and she is so very young here.

Not only are they great family memories but they also give us such a glimpse back in time as to what they wore, the shoes, the clothes the hair styles, even the baby stroller as I mentioned in my journaling. I love the black and white photos I have. Sometimes I wonder if color actually distracts the eye from the importance of what's in the photo?

So many photos I have and when I read the comments people write to me when I do these Heritage photos I realize how lucky I am to have them to pass on to future generations. I feel most fortunate when someone took the time to jot the year, the names or the places on the back.

Please take note, learn the lesson here, if you have photos, printed or digital, take a few moments to help the generations to come by putting something about the people, place or time the photo was shot. Why did you take it? Who are these people in it, and how do they relate to you? What was going on at the time the photo was taken?

We snap snap snap, but so often forget to document what it is we were so taken by that we took the time to grab the camera and take a shot. Time passes so quickly, jot the memories you have as soon as possible so you'll remember next year, or the year after, or twenty years after why you took the photo you did.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Aunty Lil and Uncle Ernie- Taken in Modesto just before leaving to visit us in Washington. One of their last trips north I believe. I love that she wrote on the back of the photo, those are the priceless things.

Larger photo available in my Gotta Pixel gallery.