When we get older, we get more nostalgic and maybe its because we want to hang onto the past more than embrace the future. Old memories can be hard to recall for some of us sometimes so we need a little help and pictures are the way to the means. I surround myself with pictures because I don’t want to forget those who are so precious to me, and those who have gone before me.

Pictures aren’t something new by any means. They’ve been around from the caveman days when they had to draw their own pictures with a colored rock or some dinosaur dung on the wall of their sanctuary.  Later-- paintings and sketches remembered many people. But then along came photography and our whole world changed because pictures were within the reach of most of us and not just the rich. I still have some black and white photos that were taken in my grandparent’s days. Remember the old albums with the little corner holders glued in place to hold the photos. Yes because of these photos, these people may be gone, but never forgotten.

My father liked to take pictures and had one of the old Brownie Hawkeye cameras that he swore revolutionized the camera industry and would never be improved upon.. You had to physically insert a blue flashbulb in the holder above the camera. Turn the knob on the side of the camera to a fresh spot on the film. Ask everybody to smile and then viola! The preceding flash was like welding without a helmet or watching an A bomb go off in the Nevada desert. White spots would float around in your eyeballs for the next hour. But you did have some time to recover for the next picture because that same flashbulb stayed hot in the camera for a while. Dad got smart however and used a leather glove to dig them out and once his jacket pocket caught on fire from the hot bulbs he had deposited in there. There was absolutely no problem getting us kids to smile for the next picture.

The problem was pictures get stored in albums and shoeboxes and they in turn get stored in cupboards and under beds and unless you are prompted they largely remained forgotten. Flash forward to today. My phone takes better pictures than any camera I ever had and it’s always with me. I download the pictures to my computer and they are constantly played in a revolving picture show whenever the computer is not being used for its intended purpose. If a picture is especially poignant, I print and frame it in the comfort of my home. Yes sometimes us old buggers get sold on technology too. --- I said sometimes.

My wife was a neat freak and rarely displayed pictures. My office looked like a gallery. Her end of the room, in her sewing shop, had a largely sterile look. Well no more. I know you’re telling the angels up there right now dear, “That there will be a day of reckoning if he ever gets up here.” Sorry honey I couldn’t help myself but sometimes I need reminding of how blessed I’ve really been. Those pictures go a long way towards doing that.