With a note of warning to you my dear blogging friends – before you read this post, don’t be surprised. It isn’t my normal garden variety post about the birds and trees. It involves one risky-looking photo and other adorable ones (of ME) as a youngin.
(Clickbait, yep ✅).
But, first, I have to show you my bleeding heart plant. I hope I rescued the sprouts from the overbearing weeds. The actual rescue mission may find its way to another post.
As the storm clouds grouped in the sky on Saturday, I noted how they were funky as they formed together for the rain to come. I knew then I had to switch up my plans. The weather prevented me from weeding the garden beds. I was desperate to make or clean up a mess, so I opted for both by making a mess on my office floor while looking at a couple of boxes of photos I’d stored away for a long time!
I followed the mother squirrel kind of mood as I got ready to jump in with gusto.
Like a kid searching through the sweet memory of treasures, I dug into the boxes and made random piles circling me on the floor. The disorganized box reminded me of the years I didn’t have time to properly make scrapbooks or put the photos in some semblance of order in photo albums. Said albums remain empty on a shelf somewhere in another room. Is this the kind of project one does when they retire? 🤔
I got to an envelope that my mom had put together at some point before her dementia – yes after she had retired. They must’ve been special to her. I grabbed a group that I hadn’t seen in a long time.
Ah, looky here – youngin me and my baby brother that tickled my memory banks.
Let’s take a closer look together. Here’s me and my pumpkin. I chuckled thinking what my mom would’ve been like if she had Instagram back then. I was a future Instagram Star or a tiny metal pumpkin salesperson, don’t you agree?
To not disappoint you – here is Me in the risky photo below. Barefoot in one photo and um…well, you can see, I’m in my birthday suit getting clean in the kitchen sink. At approximately age 3 🙄🤔😊
Then my brother entered the family scene. Note the handmade knitted pillows my mom had made to decorate our house. They were likely lined up on the couch by myself to show off for the little guy bundled up in a blanket.
It appears that along with my mom, I was smitten with the little tike.
A serious fashionista I was – check out the adorable red belt and black & white saddle shoes! My mom adored dressing me in saddle shoes and anything with red on the tops.
Me and my brother were pals. My mom’s mom liked to take photos of us too.
I wondered how my parents felt when their baby girl packed up her belongings in a grocery sack (multiple trips I hope) and moved out of the house with the help of her new hubby.
Shortly after we married, we blessed our family with the first grandbaby daughter who looked close to identical to me at age 3. Our youngest daughter was terrified of leopard skin prints at age 3 so I never got a photo of her in the outfit. Yes, in case you’re wondering, I still have the jacket outfit. I remind our daughters that if/when they have a baby girl, she’ll get to pose in the outfit. I hope that isn’t the deterrent to my current, ‘Nope, no grandkids yet’ status. 🤣
I lost track of time as the box was emptied. At the bottom of the box, I found the envelope that ended with photos of me, pregnant with baby number two. It’s hard to imagine back that far. The note on the back of the pictures below said, Spring Flood 1995. Ah, I love waterproof boots and a hubby who encouraged our oldest on adventures in the yard. I sighed as I restacked the photos. The memories kept flooding in as I repacked the box to put away to sort again on another rainy day.
Ah…it’s fun to take note of feeling young again through the happy memories in photos.
Post Inspiration – Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “note.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy! Terri Webster Schrandt’s Sunday Stills – May 5 Groups of Any Kind and Tina Schell for Lens-Artists #298 – To Be Young Again
PS – Do you have a weed in your garden that you wish the rabbits would eat instead of your flowers? Did your mom dress you in an outfit she or your dad wore when they were a child? If you could go back to any time when you were younger, what age would you be and why?
I LOVE walking down memory lane with you in pictures, Shelley! A great idea to share groups (of old young photos)–so clever of you! You are absolutely adorable in these shots even when your mom dressed you in her style, LOL! My mom did the same but not as coordinated. Instead, she made me wear red or Pepto-Bismol pink dresses which looked ghastly with my red hair and freckles.
About the squirrels, hubby put up a new fence across the back of our property which will deter the squirrels from running out of the yard with Brodie inches behind them. Oh boy!
Aw, thank you, Terri! I’m glad you enjoyed my take on the prompt. As you said in your post, it’s a wide open prompt and it shows looking at the fun photos you shared too. It has been interesting to look back at what mom’s dressed us like as kids. Oh, my, thanks for sharing what your mom did for you. I still like red, but don’t wear it as much as I did as a kid. The idea of anything Pepto-Bismol pink brings up many not so happy memories for me. 😂
That’s great you have a fence to keep Brodie from squirrel chasing too far! This little squirrel has been chased by me a few times…I’m not as fast as it and it isn’t just because of the fence. 🤣
Terri stole my thought about your “stroll down memory lane” Shelley which was exactly what I was going to say! Enjoyed it almost as much as you most assuredly did!! Thanks so much for joining us this week with your fond memories.
Thank you, Tina, I’m glad you enjoyed my take on the prompts. I can’t remember how long ago it was that I went through that box. Each time I do I feel something new. Thank you for hosting the “To Be Young Again” challenge. The essence of youth is that inquisitiveness, you captured it so well in the photos you shared in your post. 😍🥰
I’m sure you rekindled some wonderful memories with your challenge response, Shelley. I am echoing Terri’s comment about your sharing of photo groups. Great idea!
Yes, I did indeed! Thank you, John, I appreciate your feedback.
Thank you for sharing these wonderful memories, Shelley! I’m 63 so seeing the photos from the mid and late 60s is very familiar. My dad has a huge box full of photos like these. You were so cute! I love the photos you and Mr, he had lots of hair like I did. The only time I remember being dressed up was by my sister, she put me in a dress and someone took the photo! Happy Sunday, guys!
Aw, thanks, John, I’m glad you enjoyed the post! You and my hubby are the same age. My mom left me with a lot of boxes of photos. Are you planning on going through the photos with your dad on a trip back to MI? I regret not doing so with my mom all the times she asked me or suggested we do so I was too busy rushing around with work and kids.
Your sister had a silly streak, eh?
Happy Sunday (and Monday on a new week) to you too – we finally had beautiful weather so we spent the day doing yard work!
I should go through the photos with dad! I have no plans to go up there yet which sucks. I’m glad you got some nice weather, I saw more storms brewing though for the Midwest on TV this morning.
Yes, go through the photos! I bet he’ll have some great stories to share with you when you do.
The nice weather lasted through yesterday and we have storms predicted for today. It’s amazing how being able to be outside and enjoy the sun and the warm wind lifts my spirits! Spring and early summer are delightful here (when it’s not storming!). The wind is howling now, so thanks for sending it our way. 😏😂
I didn’t do it! It came from southwest of you from the gulf states. 😂
Oh, okay, I’ll forgive you then! 😂
A bad storm went over my home town yesterday. No phone Caio’s so they are OK.
Oh, no, about the storm! I’m glad your family is okay and I hope the phones have been restored. Michigan sure seems to get a lot of storms!
Yes, it sure does! They are all good, thank God. 😊
Yay, I’m happy to hear they’re all okay! 🤗
Me too. ❤️
Shelley, what priceless memories you shared here. It’s a beautiful collection.
Thank you, Egidio. I appreciate your feedback. I enjoyed your take on the prompt too. You and your brothers in the childhood photo was so fun to see and fun to compare to the photo from 2020. 🥰
Thanks again.
You’re welcome!
Those photos show some happy children growing up. You’re lucky to have them.
Thanks, Dan, yes, our childhoods were happy. I’m glad photos were taken to remind us of those moments!
I am yet to go through the big box of family photos. I have enough of a hard time sorting my digital photos 😂
Lovely memories Shelley 😀
LOL – I’m sure you can believe this, but this was only 2 of the unnumbered boxes of photos we have. 🤣 I have a hard time with digital photos too. Comes with the turf of wanting to capture as many moments as possible. I probably could delete a bunch of bird, squirrel, or rabbits photos though!
Thank you!
PS – Sorry that I totally spaced out that it was the end of the month of April and missed out on your Last Card prompt! 😣😭
My problem lies mainly with using the motor drive function up to 10 frames a second which is great for flying things but I end up with lots of the same photo but can’t delete and just save 1 or 2 🙄
😂 It’s been a long time since I set my camera to take quick shots. I did that with Copper running a couple of times and had SO many photos! I enjoy seeing the photos you decide to keep!
There are plenty of weeds in my yard and the rabbits (and the deer — yes, we have them) can have all of them.
Neither Mom nor Dad tried to dress us in their clothes. Interesting, though: my grandmother let Mary try on the dress she wore at my parents’ wedding. It looked as good on Mary as it did on Grandma.
Mary spent the afternoon going through her mother’s photo albums. The only picture she recognized was her mother’s First Communion picture. There are all these pictures of family and/or friends of Mary’s grandparents and we have no idea who any of them are. Made Mary kind of sad…
That’s cool you have deer too. I wish the rabbits and the deer would eat the weeds. They’ve been more enticed by the decadent tiger lilies. 😣
That’s sweet that the dress fit Mary and that she looked beautiful in it.
I know how Mary feels – I have several boxes of photos like that. My youngest went through them and sorted by date and I still don’t know who many of the people are in them. I regret not going through them with my mom when she wanted to years ago. I’m sorry Mary felt sadness about her photos. 😢
My family had an old radio cabinet (a faily big one at that) full to the top with family pictures and some of my grandfather’s memorabilia (from his high school football coaching days). We didn’t recognize most of the people in the pictures. Some of them even my grandfather didn’t recognize. A few looked like relatives from Ireland, including one cranky old genteman who looked like he had been constipated for a week….
Wow, that’s a trove of treasures. Your description of the gentleman with the look of constipation is funny. I think I’ll look through my mom’s old photos and see if it’s a trend in hers as well.
Makes me wonder if you have a bunch of photos of you and Mary that you’ll leave behind for family to find and if they’ll wonder who some of the people are or if anyone looks a tad cranky or extra happy for some reason? 🤔😉
Mary and I have surprisingly few pictures of each other or the two of us together. I have no explanation….
Aw, there’s no time like the present… 😉
A wonderful read, Shelley. It’s universal, that feeling we get while looking at old photos, I think. Nostalgia and a little bit of magic.
Thank you, Sofia, I’m glad you enjoyed the post. I agree, nostalgia and magic go together – you captured and shared that in your photos this week!
Oh the red coat with leopard trim + muff. That takes me back. I had the red coat but with black velvet trim and a muff to go with, of course.
It was great of your mother to save these photos for you. Wonderful of you to share them here.
Hi Ally – thank you so much for stopping by to enjoy a red coat moment with me. Weren’t those muffs the warmest things? 🥰
When I moved my mom to assisted living and sorted through ALL of her photos, to say she had saved some is an understatement. It was hard to go through the photos she had taken after I had left the nest and she remarried. A second lifetime of adventures I never really knew she had taken. I didn’t keep any of those as I didn’t know what to do with them. I digress, though – yes, my mom saved lots of photos. I’m glad you enjoyed seeing the ones I found as treasures to share here!
Sweet photos Shelley, and yes…I think one of the joys of retirement is going through the old photos (and videos). Funny. thing is my girls aren’t too interested since they are busy making memories (with better cameras) with their own kids. I liked your mom’s idea about having an envelope of favorites. I do have a small bin with a few of the same type of photos, and notes I write to them… all of them. This was fun to read and makes me want to go back through the old ones. A fun read. Have a good week.
Thank you, Donna, I appreciate your encouragement and clarity that when I retire I’ll have time to sort through the photos properly. My girls aren’t too excited about the old photos right now either. Neither one have kids, but I’m sure they’ll be taking many photos when they do. It’s funny in a way, my mom and my dad both saved those few photos in a similar envelope and gave it to me when my kids were that age. Now I wonder maybe she had made an envelope to give to my dad and he didn’t know what to do with them so he gave them to me. 😂 Guess that means I can give one to each of my kids! That’s special that you write notes to go along with your photos. I should do that too!! I hope when you find the time to go back through your photos that you enjoy the moments captured! 😍
Thanks Shelley. Funny about your dad. That is probably true. lol. My dad would have been the same.
You’re welcome! It’s in the classic dad moves book in our family. Glad to hear he’s in good company 😊
you said it best yourself, stroll in memories and feeling young again through the happy memories in photos.
Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome, thank you for reading and for commenting! Happy flying to you 🤗
Shelley, I enjoyed seeing your cutie-pie self back in the day.
I may have scanned in all my albums, but because some did not have removable pages, they did not scan well. Others are tiny pictures, maybe due to the photo processing placer at the time, or maybe it was the Baby Brownie camera? But they are in different stages … some are ready to be used in a blog post where others have to be enlarged. When I scanned in the photos over Thanksgiving 2017, I had not discovered fellow bloggers until a few weeks later (after blogging with only two e-mail subscribers for four years) … so that project of digitizing everything into a perfect format will be a retirement project down the road. If I had it to do again, I’d use a handheld scanner.
I like all your photos how you arranged them and grouped them and reminisced over them. I like the idea of saving that outfit. I do think your pics of your young daughters did resemble you at their same age.
How nice you were close to your brother. It is nice being an only child, but sometimes it would have been nice to grow up with a sibling too, especially having strict parents as I did. Thank you for sharing all your photos and memories of yourself and “brand-new hubby”.
I have some new kind of weed that has grown like … well like a weed … I’ve never seen it before and it is clingy. I picked some away from the dryer vent and generator vents (we we were supposed to have very severe weather tonight, so I wanted to ensure the area was clear should the generator be on for hours … or days). This weed is terrible, grows high and is fast-growing. Since Jeff suggested rodents might live where they these weeds located, it was a hard pass to do any weeding, but I have to change my tune and quickly.
I never wore anything my mom dressed up when she was young and I have no kids so can’t pass any of my baby/young clothes on to them.
I guess my early college years (community college)… we had a fun group of staffers working on the school newspaper and we were all single, so we got together daily at the newspaper staff room in between classes and went out every weekend and to concerts in the Summer. We drifted apart when we transferred to four-year universities to complete our degrees. I was also involved in student government and loved my waitress job, did a lot of traveling. It was a full and fun life, from around 1973-1976.
Thank you, Linda, I appreciate your words of encouragement. And, I love reading your stories about your childhood and pre-graduation from college days. I’m glad you got to go on travels and meet many interesting people. The early 70s were grade school time for me, another period in life where fashion was dictated by what my mom provided me with to wear. 🙄 You’re such a good story teller. I’m taking notes about what to put on an ‘after-I-retire’ list and what works and doesn’t work. The idea of digitizing all the photos seems quite daunting to me at this moment in time. Maybe I need another cup of coffee 😂
I do like reading the back stories of bloggers as we only see the “almost real time” stories of today. I call them stories too as many of them are more like a story. Thank you for saying that Shelley – this Sunday’s post will be a little bit of a story. I’ve not written it yet – it’s still in my head. Tonight I am slow here as to internet as I have one bar and it has to b the wind – it was gusting to 30 most of the day. You might want to consider a retirement gift of sending all your photos to a company like “Legacy Box” which will transfer any prints digitally for you. They advertise a lot on my radio station, plus they do videos and film reels as well. I know Walgreen’s does the same thing and you’re not putting your photos in the mail. You could do it as a special treat for yourself. I know I took all four days of Thanksgiving holiday in 2017 and was happy to be done, then a few months later remembered a shoe box of photos under my bed that I needed album pages for and they discontinued those album pages, so I never got around to just buying a new album. It is a mishmash of photos and I think the only photos I took of how I decorated the house when I used to decorate a lot,
You’re welcome. Aw, I look forward to seeing your Sunday post and the story that you let unfold for us to enjoy. I hope the internet issues resolved after a good night of sleep. Huh, well, I’ll have to look into that service, I haven’t heard of it before. I’d feel the necessity to sort the photos first I think. 😉😂, I’d be half-way done with the project. Isn’t it fun how we have all these special boxes of photos around that are waiting to be put in photo albums? My grandmother was pretty good at albums or scrapbooks for a period of time. Then she died way too young and so my mom ended up with the boxes and the history of having boxes of photos became mine. Now with all the digital photos boxes are a thing of the past. Sigh. Thank you, though, I appreciate the suggestion. Maybe some of your former decorating ideas will appear in a blog post sometime? 😉
I have not been on here a whole lot today Shelley as we had a storm earlier today, a routine thunderstorm and I was on here briefly this a.m. thinking I’d catch up until the A/C tech came for the inspection. She got here and for 90 minutes it poured. She had on a rain suit and used an umbrella the entire time. And I may have to put the heat on again – trying not to but she had the A/C on 90 minutes and it got to 67 in here. Still pouring.
As to the photos, I had to do the digitizing out of necessity because I bought a printer/scanner when I got the laptop. I did not configure the original laptop but had Geek Squad to it thru Best Buy as they set up the wireless connections. The tech guy told me the printer didn’t work, but the scanner did. I never used the printer for work, so I just kept it, but ended up getting an Epson Flatbed scanner to scan the photos. I had to do this because when I got the original scanner, I went into the boxes in the bottom of a closet where I kept the albums and the pages were coming apart. They had binding on the edges with holes for posts and you just added posts every time you bought pages. The pages tore out of the post set-up. They were Hallmark albums – my mom’s albums were the old-fashioned kind with the corners that you lick, then stick onto the page, so I could remove them. Legacybox has been around for a while and advertise a lot. In the shoebox I think I had the pictures of how the Christmas decorations looked – if not, it is in one of the Rubbermaid tubs downstairs – there are lots of decorations. My mom and I went to a lot of country fairs and the house is done with an Early American them and country kitchen, so we had a lot of rustic ornaments, but also had some fun stuff like Precious Moments, Snoopy and Boyd’s Bears. So if I could find those photos, I might be inspired to recreate what it used to look like … not all the rooms though … we had two trees and I had my tree at work. I hoped to have everything done for this year … it likely will not happen, although when we have this long, hot Summer they are talking about, I probably will get some things done then … no fun being outside on a 90+-degree day. I have already gotten sunburned on my forehead twice, despite the fact that I have two SPF hats, neither which I have worn. Yes – dumb!
Oh, dang, more rain. That’s impressive that she kept on working through the rain! I’m glad you got your AC checked out though – if it’s going to be that hot this summer you’re gonna need it for sure.
Sounds like you’ve got a good start to your photo scanning and an idea for how to use the photos of decorations for future posts. I keep smiling at all the potential fun projects you have now that you’re retired. I bet there are moments of feeling overwhelmed, though, but you’ll find your groove.
Aw…it’s easy to get sunburned when we’ve been stuck inside and finally get a great day to be outside! You’ll have to put the hats on your camera so you don’t forget next time. 😉
When I look around the house I do feel a bit overwhelmed and yesterday would have been a great day to work in the house, but I had to interrupt for the tech visit. And during the week, I don’t want to have a lot of bags inside … garbage day is Monday, nor outside either. I did not do as well as I did a few weeks ago though. I need to get ahead a few posts and maybe I’ll be able to devote more time to getting rid of stuff. The weather and errands messed up my efforts. I’m angry at myself I didn’t retire when I wanted to.
Well, that floppy hat hopefully isn’t a deterrent for taking photos – maybe a baseball cap might have been better. They have those with the SPF built in. I’ll try it on Sunday.
It is easy to feel overwhelmed when we want to just get it all done and move on! If it helps at all, I still have boxes from 2010 that I packed from my mom’s house that I haven’t dealt with. Out of sight, sort of out of mind. You’ll find the groove at some point that works best for you now that you’re officially retired. 🤗
I hope the baseball hat works better! I’ve never been much of a hat person, but when we were in Jamaica in 2019 I bought a baseball cap and it did help keep the sun off of my face. 🤔
You are right – I did have high expectations and they are not being met, but the Summer’s broiling weather may be a good time to hunker down then.
I am glad your boxes languish since 2010 – that maks me feel better!
The floppy hats might be a distraction with the camera – tomorrow it is supposed to be sunny, so I’ll try one, only I’m not hearing anything about the two murderers and whether they’ve been caught yet – on the loose from a murder about three miles from here. Crickets on the news stations today.
I’m feeling the same motivation when the weather gets too hot to enjoy outside time. Until then, though, it’s outside we go to enjoy the weather while we can!
I hope the hat worked out for you. Our sunny day was so windy, I doubt a hat would’ve stayed in place. 😂 I hope the murderer was caught and that you got to venture out without cause to worry. It’s amazing how quickly the news cycles change.
Yes, make the most of it before it turns into scorching hot weather. This morning was gray, no humidity, no wind … but very gray, so I got a five-mile walk in at least.
I’m not a fan of sunhats – I remember years ago my mom and I were shopping and she saw a sunhat and bought it for me in the garden. I wore it, but it was hard to see due to the brim, like the one I had on Sunday. I might consider an SPF baseball cap instead.
There’s been no mention of the murderers or the murder – that irks me. I was more worried the day after, but it rained all day so I didn’t go out. The neighbor across the street from Marge had two beagles and they were his hunting dogs. They stayed outside in a metal shed all year around except bitter cold nights, they were put in the basement. So one night the sound of sirens and lights in front of the house woke him up. He worried as the dogs were in the house as it was bitter cold. Someone had committed a crime, ditched their car and ran into Jerry’s shed for cover. How did he know there was a shed in the backyard? And that it was open all the time so the dogs could go in/out? The police found the criminal in the shed. When my neighbor put up the privacy fence, there is an area at the side of my house that is all boxed in … I think “would someone go here and sleep?” The front of this area has a huge thorny bush, so he/she would have to enter from the other side.
I’m glad you got out and walked. That is so odd there hasn’t been an update on the murderers. And scary to think that you’ve had criminals hiding out so close to your house! I hope you hear something soon – and hopefully it is that they’ve been caught and are in jail.
I’m with you on sun hats. I bought one for my trip, wore it once, but it was hard to keep on in the wind. I may wear it sometime this summer when I’m gardening. We’ll see. Let me know if you find one that works well for you!
Yes, five miles again today, but the Park experience is no longer there. It was my happy place and now they are working on the other side, left all the stuff they felled and bulldozed over (even a park bench all mangled up) and they’re cutting down trees there. I don’t want to bee melodramatic, but it will not be the same. I saw maybe 10 squirrels today … a few of them in the debris left which I wondered if they were looking for their nests in the felled trees, or their babies and there were no workmen there yet they looked lost and scared and timid when I stood there offering peanuts … the other side, about four were okay, but they likely didn’t lose their nests/babies. I am so angry when I go there.
Five miles is impressive – are you walking faster because there is less to see in those areas? It’s so sad the critters and their homes are being dismantled. I’m feeling sad with you, Linda, 😢
Thank you Shelley – I feel awful about it. No, actually I am walking slower because on that side especially, I am stopping to stand there and try to coax the squirrel(s) over to see me. Before they came running over all the way around the loop. They are very skittish now, so I am catering to them as I think they are traumatized. I am angry that they made this mess and I feel they should have cleaned it all up before moving to the other side. Or they could have started at the other side first as there are seldom any critters there.
A few days late arriving, but this is one of the many uses of photos. Nothing against digital photos, but will this sort of sharing and reflection happen in the future with digital photos? I’m guess not – but I hope I’m wrong. Thanks for sharing Shelley … and hope all is well with you.
Hi Frank! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. I’m with you on that aspect of the digital photos. There’s something special about holding an actual photo taken by someone to capture a special moment that just isn’t there in the digital photo. Sharing each other’s phone to look at photos seems as close as we’ll get. Now the sharing of them is through the air from one phone to another too. 🤔🙄
It’s great to hear from you – I hope all is well with you too. PS – I’ve been having WordPress issues so I’m glad you stopped by to remind me to check out your blog, I so enjoyed your post about HOPE!
WP Gnomes are a sneaky lot!
Well said, that they are! 😂