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THE TREASURE OF OLD PICTURES

9/30/2016

8 Comments

 
Picture
Last week I stumbled upon this image, which incredible as it is to realize, is approaching 75 years old. The man, who looks almost exactly like my dad, is actually my grandfather, Roscoe Jobe. The little boy is my late brother, David. The setting is the same pasture where my pony grazed in the late 1960s, early 1970s. The building is the summer kitchen and the house where I grew up is on the other side of it.
I love this old photo for many reasons. For one thing, in decades past, people didn’t take bunches of pictures as they do now, so you’ve got to figure the photos that were taken and survive today represent special occasions or milestones of one kind or another. This picture is between 70-75 years old. I’m guessing that its significance is that my grandfather, Roscoe Jobe, had just bought this pony for my brother, the late David Jobe.

I also love it because this picture was taken in what I knew as “the pony lot,” or, referring to another era of the same location, “the chicken yard” (due to chickens residing there before I came along). My pony, Ginger, and later my horse, Buck, grazed and were saddled up in that same space 25 years after this photo was taken. By then, my grandfather had passed on and my brothers were grown. (Remember, I came along late in my parents' reproductive years.)

I love the continuity that this old farm photo represents, but there is more.

After my dad died, my brother David and his wife Janet built a home steps away from where this photo was taken. They are both gone now but their granddaughter lives in the home they built, and that granddaughter’s sister lives in the house where my grandparents, then my parents lived, and where I grew up (on the other side of that summer kitchen in the photo. It still stands as well).

One of my future projects concerns creating some kind of order for these old photos. And wouldn’t the best of them make great gifts, enlarged and framed, for particular loved ones?

I have century-old and older photos that are in perfect condition, clear, sharp and although they have not been cared for especially well through the decades, heaped into boxes and shelved, and who knows what else before that, they have come down through the generations intact and beautiful.

I have to wonder what photos (the current term has evolved to “images”) will survive from the digital age. I am as guilty as the next person of taking family pictures, posting the best of the lot on Facebook – and forgetting them.

Up until a couple years ago, I was good about making copies, at least. Before that, until about five years ago, I was good about not only copying them, but filing them in order in albums. I’m not so good at either now.

We see how technology changes rapidly, and we change right along with it more gradually, but change we do. So the camera cards and smart phones of today that produce beautiful images will become obsolete and if the photos aren’t printed, ones depicting entire childhoods, vacations and special events, may be lost forever.

It’s something to think about. Will my kids and grandkids, let alone great-grandkids, give a hoot about old photos? Will there even be remaining images of their ancestors or will today’s selfies be tomorrow’s long-lost fad?

I’m curious about how others manage their vintage, as well as more current photos. How do you store them? Do you still print and fill family albums? Do you ever print photos anymore? Do you trust the “cloud” to house your content on into the future or will it be lost when the “next big thing” comes along?

And even if you trust the "cloud," will your descendants be able to access those images?

8 Comments
Marlene (Jobe)Thompson link
9/30/2016 06:10:34 am

I was just recently wondering if my children and grandchildren would be interested in seeing any old pictures of me? I am just like my mother and grandmother was about not wanting my picture taken and until my parents died, which by the way was the brother of Donna (Jobe) Cronk that built the house in that pony field where I would put my pony when I would ride over to Donna's house just a mile away where I grew up. And by the way my grandfather had bought me my first pony I named snowball, which I would have thought that man in the picture would have been my grandfather Donna's father because that is what he looked like also that boy Donna's brother, my father. As I was scrambling to find photos of my mother for her funeral I realized that I didn't want my children to have to do the same for my funeral which I hope is far away yet, but I don't know gods plans. So I took my phone and took all of the pictures from the people who might have pictures that I would want and I spent 200 dollars printing pictures and I bought 6 photo books to fill them in, just in case someone after I am gone might be interested in having them. I have also decided to take as many photos of myself with my family as they want because I realized it is not about me and how I feel about the way I look to myself, but it is about how years from now I only hope that my children and theirs will look at these pictures and look at me the way they see me and cherish them like I do when I find a picture of my parents and grandparents. I am also the mother of those 2 children that live on that very property and there are chickens and ducks in the field again and I fully plan on buying my grandchildren their first pony when they're around 7 years old. And it will be kept right around the same area as ours did. That was truly the best times of my life,before my children and grandchildren of course. I also copied all of my videos on to a disc for my family so they're able to have voice and better visual also, I just hope someday it will mean as much to them that they mean to me.

Reply
Donna Cronk
9/30/2016 06:21:01 am

Oh, Marlene,
I just love your comments! I'm so happy to see the farm continue to have Jobe descendants there and life going on. I'm glad you have those photos to go into the future... this is great. And PONIES in the future! Yee-haw! Donna

Reply
Lisa Jobe
9/30/2016 10:23:55 am

I am shocked but delighted to hear that Marlene! I had noticed the turnaround at your wedding but kept my mouth shut for fear of you going back to 'no photos please'. I also noticed your daughter has lightened up on the dislike of photos.
You also made me cry because I noticed recently that my own photos are few due to my usually being behind the camera! We need to have a printing party (would take all day), and a scrapbooking party! Definitely all together!

Reply
Donna cronk
9/30/2016 03:38:08 pm

All day? Probably a month. Would be fun though. (:))

Reply
Mike Jobe link
10/3/2016 06:54:30 pm

Fantastic photo, I too would think it's my grandpa. I don't remember seeing a picture of Roscoe, my dad spent hours talking about him and how much he looked forward to riding and spending time with his grandpa.

Reply
Donna Cronk
10/21/2016 05:33:28 pm

Yep, that's Roscoe and your dad, Mike! A treasure to have that image!

Reply
Debbie M. link
10/5/2016 05:30:02 am

Donna, How wonderful that you and your family are discussing old pictures and stories. That is how we transfer the memories to the next generation.

While visiting my dad, we discovered two more wedding pictures of my dad and mom. That now brings the total wedding pictures to 4 that I have. (They had a very small wedding without all the hoopla and pictures of today!) Since my mom has been gone for a couple of years, it made me cry to see her in her youth and so happy. (She was only 18 when she married my dad.)

Reply
Donna Cronk
11/6/2016 08:10:57 pm

So nice to have those keepsakes ...

Reply



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