From: "John Mustarde" > >A comment and a question: > >- I think "John baby photo" is a great one. (My guess is that mother > >is standing right beside the photographer making funny faces or waving > >a favourite pet doll in order to evoke a smile from you.) > > My wife runs across that one every year or so. Makes her go ditzy and > coo... she gets all motherly on me, which ain't a bad thing at all for > a cozy evening...
Thanks! Now I know what I'll do. I'm going to enlarge one of my own "Lasse baby photos" (I do have a few of them) that might give the same effect (although I guess the negs stayed with the photographer) and put it on a wall where any visiting girl/lady will spot it, and see what luck it might bring me... :-) > >- What do you call the the kind of fence or "corrall" in "Barbara > >1947"? (Me and my sister used to have one too, and I got a few > >pictures of me in one of those as well.) > > > 1947 was before my time, but I think it was called a "playpen." > Nowadays they build fancy ones in sections that are called baby > corrals. So, you - do - use the word "corral" for it. I knew it only for horses from cowboy stories. Do the/you British call it the same? > It is amazing how *few* family photos I've managed to accumulate, > considering all the years of photo opportunities. I just finished > digitizing three hundred or so from my wife's family, which I am > laboriously retouching as time and interest permit. I think you are ahead of me in numbers, but I am doing the same. > Artifacts in the background, like the playpen you mentioned, are > interesting. Old cars, old toys, old furniture - all evoke a sense of > history and the continuity of family life. Exactly. I've spotted numerous toys, clothes, paintings, kitchen stuff etc. that bring back memories I had all forgotten about. A funny instance: recently on a 1952 photo of my father and mother sitting in the grass outside my grandparents house I noticed his leather briefcase beside him. That's the one I still prefer using today! I didn't know it was that old (and probably even a few years older than that). Kind of beat up, the grip needs some work, but the brown leather has a nice feel to it. I could go on on this topic, but suffice to say it is rewarding in so many ways to deal with pictures of the past. Thanks, Lasse
