Thursday, March 7, 2013

Piles To Go Before I Sleep

I'm thinking people who live in Hawaii or southern France don't sit around sorting through 150 years of photographs. They are too busy living in the moment and being seduced into all that glorious sunshine.

Our landscape looks more like this:


Piles of snow and darkness all day have made it easier to lead the life of a scrapbooking troglodyte, the better to hunch over all these years of life, reunions, birthdays, children and Halley's Comet.



I have officially made it to the 1970s, which is a good thing. The bad thing is I've watched these people grow old. At first they are wearing gigantic bows and going to the rural school with their cousins, attending church, then getting married, and sailing off to Cuba. In a blink they are celebrating marriage milestones, being eulogized and buried.

(In my next life, I'm going to hire an archivist and just head to the beach.)


This really organized card table, once our daughter's changing table, has become pictorial HQ. Having sorted hundreds of pictures as chronologically as I can, I've photo cornered myself silly while listening to the news, The View, The Chew, Dr. Oz (who seems to have 17 shows a day), AndersonEllen, HGTV, and the news again. 

There have been some surprises along the way:


 

(Such jokesters, those 1908 Illinoisans.)

And this is the incomplete result:


There are still documents and newspapers plus an entire box of unidentified relatives, which really bothers me. We have managed to track down a few cousins who may have duplicates, so I hope to identify at least some of these nameless folks.


I should be finishing up just in time to see our front lawn again.

And then it occurs to me, there are piles of Anna's wedding pictures. From last August. Waiting.

Each week Naperville Now participates in Mrs. Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday. See what others have to say about the letter P here.






19 comments:

Sharon said...

When you're finished could you come to my house please!

Monica said...

Wow! What a job, but what fun it will be to see the finished product/s!!

SarahBeth said...

Those old photos are ALWAYS waiting.... waiting.... I think they somehow multiply on their own in those dark boxes :)
Good for you in going through them!
(That card and pic are too funny!)

Rocky Mountain Woman said...

That's funny because I spent all last night looking through old photos of my horse showing days...

there are TONS of them...

Stacia said...

This is such a wonderful thing to do! Your family will be so, so grateful.

Leovi said...

Wonderful photos, I love, Melon extraordinary.

Anonymous said...

Mrs JP

You know the corollary to "I made it to the 70's" don't you? "I survived the 60's"!! Last time real music was made.

Mr B

Cathy Kennedy said...

The piles of scrapbooking looks much more fun than having to move piles of snow. We got some of that wintry mix, but nothing like you guys I'm happy to say. I'm so tired of winter and want the sun to come out to stay. Pooh, on winter!

This is a fun post, but it made me realize I need to get such stuff organized, too. *sigh* Oh well, that will have to wait!

Eden House News and views said...

Two years ago I went to Spokane today goodbyetomydear aunt .whilst there i had the idea of making a family tree scrap book not started yet so good on you ufor getting going .my excuse is I can't get good scrapbooking stuff here in uk

Lmkazmierczak said...

Commendable project♫ My archiving keeps getting further and further onto that back burner! Here's my P effort: http://lore-eleven.blogspot.com/2013/03/pipes.html

Kathy and Freddy said...

Does anyone get the meaning of the melon joke? I'm an old Illinoisan, and don't get it. But I bet it was really really hilarious until 1910?
I am truly impressed with your stick-to-itiveness . You are an inspiration.

Gattina said...

Can't we switch the climate ? I am fed up of snow and during summer time it rains more then the sun is shining. So you would have to stay inside, lol !

Unknown said...

Oh, that's a job never done!
Love your snowy walkway -the snow makes the bushes look like mushrooms:):)

Lola said...

Hi again! Love the post – great photography!

We're having lots of torrential rain here in S Spain - like to change climates?!

Have a good weekend,

Visiting from Alphabe-Thursday

Peg said...

I have a box of my mother's photos and clippings too. I did organize some of them into a scrapbook of her life.

EG CameraGirl said...

Your family will thank you big time for your hard work...eventually. :))

VBR said...

Archiving, cataloging, whatever it is called is a huge task. BUT! And, this is a big BUT! Down the line somewhere, there are going to be some very happy/grateful people. The information and memories you are organizing are invaluable to a family's history.
I collect antique photos mostly of children with dogs, and all too often, the most beautiful, interesting photos have no info on them. They are just little faces that are lost in the history of time. Too sad. So, I think that your endeavors are wonderful!!

Splendid Little Stars said...

whoa! That's a lot of work!
I need to do some of that myself.
love the big melon!

Jenny said...

This is definitely a Project but it looks like you are being quite Productive...

Perfect way to get through the chilly winter...

Great Post for the letter P...

A+