Today I made an interesting find at a local antique mall: an old family photo album. I’ve no doubt but that many people wouldn’t assign as much significance to this as I did, but discarded family mementos always invoke a strange sort of, for the lack of a better word, nostalgia. I get this feeling whenever I come across an old discarded family snapshot at a flea market or mall, languishing anonymously in a stack of other forgotten memories. What were the circumstances that resulted in the photos being separated from the family that should treasure them? Was it because the family simply dwindled away, with no descendants to pass on the photos and their hidden stories? This haunts me sometimes, because I understand that I’ll never know.
This album is in very rough shape, but the photos themselves aren’t too bad. They appear to date from as early as the 1930s to as recent as the late 1960s, and provide a myriad of glimpses into a family that, while not always nameless, is certainly a mystery. I’ve decided to refer to this as “the Robbins Album”, that name being hand-written on several of the photos, and will be sharing them here periodically. I’ll probably include one or more of them in the next couple of days, and perhaps you’ll share in my curiosity over an anonymous family whose generations were captured on film.
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That always intrigues me too! Especially if I find important photos like graduation or wedding. I like to collect such things partially because it makes me feel like SOMEONE is then remembering these people existed, even if no one who knew them is still around to remember. Also a reason I love wandering graveyards and reading names and epitaphs.
Oh good… it’s not just me. I think it’s cool that this album has remained relatively intact, as I’m sure that most get broken up in order to sell the photos individually. I’m looking forward to really studying the photos and getting them up for people to see!
You’re post w/photo created an unexpected collage of emotions from me…most strongly…a terribly sad feeling of loneliness…for the book?…or rather…the lack of love for a book that once was once treasured and cherished.
And for the one who once possessed it.
Sorta glad you adopted it.
Anyway…I dig your blog & have been a subscriber for some time now. Just never got around to thanking you.
GOOD STUFF!
Thanks, Casey, you’ve made my day!