Taking a picturesque trip down memory lane

Yes, it has been over three months since we moved to Bryan, Texas, but thanks to major snafus getting new carpet in the house we are just now unpacking boxes and figuring out where to put things.

Last Thursday I unloaded a couple boxes of photo albums. The task itself only takes a few minutes, but the process is much longer than that. Stopping to flip through the albums and steal glances back through time takes forever.

I want to go back … in time … just for a bit. I found a picture of my mother and middle brother at my brother’s high school graduation in 1985. They’re both gone now. I want just one more moment with each of them; one more chance to say I love you.

We have dozens of photo albums. Some are Sandy’s but most are mine. I’ve always been a shutterbug and my mother kept meticulous albums of family pictures. I did too, right up until around the early part of the 2000s when I got too busy to maintain albums and things started going digital. In addition to all the albums, I have several boxes of loose photos and numerous CDs jammed with pictures.

Each picture is a moment in time that can never be recaptured. But they can be remembered, which is what I love about photography. Photographs bring clarity to fuzzy memories. They say so much more than a thousand words can describe. As I look through the pictures, I realize that I should have included enough words to at least note who is in the picture and when and where it was taken. There are some people and events you think you’ll never forget – until you do.

The last time I put any serious effort into researching my family tree I found a couple pictures of my great-grandfather and great-great grandfather. I know my paternal grandparents had photo albums, but they appear to be long gone now. Oh, how I wish I could find them. I could add them to the big pile of other albums, CDs and photo boxes to sort and organize someday.

The main thing is I have all those memories of my lifetime visually documented, not only for my enjoyment but also for the generations to come. Today we can look at pictures from the 1800s and wonder what some of the gadgets are that they’re using and muse about how rustic their way of life was. Sometime decades or even centuries from now my descendants are going to look at pictures of me and wonder, “what the heck was he thinking and why is someone holding his beer?”

Seriously though, as I look back at pictures of my kids when they are little, I wish that I could go back and play with those kiddos again. There are a lot of things I wish I could do differently. As much as I might wish this, however, I’m not going to let my life be run by regrets. Flipping through the albums I see a lot of things we did that were spectacular and fun. There are lots of Scouting activities, birthdays, holidays, graduations, weddings, vacations, sporting events and so on.

Stuck on discs and digital storage devices are more recent pictures of us in costumes at the Texas Renaissance Festival, in costume at Texas Revolution reenactments, pictures of my son and I in uniform volunteering at Brazos Bend State Park, and tons of photos from football, baseball, and rugby games. Both albums and discs are flooded with pictures from comic cons, Space Center Houston, and the beach. There are also wedding and baby pictures intermixed with countless, random, goofy pictures of my family throughout the years.

Stowing the last of the albums in the cabinet is like closing a book after reading a couple chapters. They are there to pick up again and re-read, but the real adventures lie ahead. Now is the time to make new memories, have new experiences, and make new friends. Life is here and now. The pictures are great and always worth reliving, but not at the expense of today.

The rest of the house needs to be unpacked and set up. There is work to be done in the yard to get ready for our foray into farming. We are working hard, having fun, and yes, taking lots of pictures along the way.

While my heart is warmed by this photographic trip down memory lane, I have to wonder how long it will take me to unpack, as I know some of the boxes contain old toys and other keepsakes that will take me just as long to reminisce about. Come to think of it, maybe that is the real reason it’s taking so long to get settled into our new home.