Pictures from the Past

This week, collecting old family photos from the garage and various closets, I came up with eleven storage boxes of pictures and frames.  That is just too many if you don't have a library and/or you are not an historian.  It was time to pare down.

Beginning the process, with two sacks of miscellaneous black garbage sacks already filled with photo clutter and ready to be taken for disposal, here is the start of the editing:

Some of the photos I unearthed were sweet, evoking sentimental emotions, such as this studio shot taken in about 1935 of my mother, her mother and her sister( left to right).

The back of this photograph is in my brother's handwriting and says "Lela Hugeley Motley, married to Thomas Jefferson Motley, May 30, 1883" (my great grandmother from the paternal side of the family).  This was likely Lela's Motley's wedding portrait (born Novermber 23, 1859, Died July 22, 1921).

And, of course, there were pictures of home life and my kids at various stages of their childhood. I won't bother to show scans of some of those photos.

But I have to include this bizarre photograph of the tombstone for my great grandfather's FOOT from 100 years ago.

Now why in the world would one have a memorial to a part of one's body that was amputated?  Curious, but the proof is in the photo.  You wonder what the story was behind that foot...

The good thing is that several days later, I'm down to five boxes of pictures, and ready to further prune, scan and discard even more of these photos.  Thank g-d for digital cameras and scanners.