Old Family Photos

Last year, I was going through old photos at my parent's house.  It's always fun, isn't it?  To see our parents and grandparents when they were our age.  Or even younger.  I had a vision to create a wall somewhere in our house with a few of these pictures.  We'll see when I get to that.  It's on that infamous list of things that never seem to get done.  

 Photography is so different now than it was then.  We take pictures of the food we're eating, our coffee cups, the sunlight coming through the window, our dog laying in a funny position.  Back then, it wasn't like that.  Pictures were savored.  It's even different now than it was ten years ago.  Now that we have cameras on our phones and our phones go everywhere with us, we carry the ability to savor every moment with a picture.  And it's hard to know whether you should be living in the moment, or taking a picture of the moment so that you can remember it later.  I love photography, but about 5% of the time I don't, because I miss the moment while I'm taking a picture. 

Anyway… 

Sit back and relax while I take you on trip in my family's history.

This is my grandfather, Ralph.  I never knew him with a cigarette in his mouth, but he smoked his whole life unit he had his heart attack.  I was just a toddler when he had his heart attack.  He never smoked again.  This was taken on the street my dad grew up on.  I rode my big wheel up and down that sidewalk hundreds of times.

This was their front door.  I can still hear the sound of it opening and closing on a summer day.

He apparently liked to be photographed with his shirt off.

I have to say… those shorts are pretty short.  And he was pretty buff back in the day.

This was from his military days.  Those were boys who fought in World War II.  The closer my boys get to 18, the more I think about that.  Isn't it amazing?

This was their first and only house.  Those tiny trees in the front were huge climbing trees by the time I came into the picture.  I always remember their house being so big, but it really wasn't… it was my favorite house of all time.  There's just something about Grandma's house.

This is my Grandma right after my dad was born.

This is my dad, believe it or not.  Ha!

This is also my dad.

This is my grandma with my dad and my aunt Julie.  I love how women dressed back then.  So elegant and refined and yet modest.  I wish we still did it that way… although I do love my yoga pants.

Grandma with my dad and aunt a little bit older now.

And now to the Roembke side of the family.  This is my mom's family.

This is a picture of my mom's mom.  And isn't she gorgeous?  She still is :)  She's 94 and has more energy than all of us!

This was my mom when she was a baby.

This is my mom with her sister and parents.  She and Lianne were 11 months apart.  It was wartime and the babies were booming!

I love this house and those windows.  And again… I love how they dressed.

My mom as a child.

Then enters a wedding to meld these two families forever.

Isn't that amazing how that works?

I'll stop here and do another installment of pictures of my family from my parent's early marriage and my growing up years.