Feeling the passing of time

I have a lovely photo of my parents on their wedding day in March 1963 with both sets of their parents with them. I am now the same age as my paternal grandfather, who was the oldest of the four, was at the time. All four look very smart but so much older than their years. My oldest grandfather had a very strong resemblance to Captain Mainwairing and at 58 could easily have been in his seventies. My two grandmothers were, again, dressed very smartly in much the style of the late Queen Mother. My youngest grandmother was 46 at the time. I believe she was the only one who had any natural teeth, too, although she had most of them removed soon afterwards. I think that was another reason people looked older than their years then, too. There was also the attitude that you were elderly by fifty and old by sixty, which, thankfully, no longer exists for most of us. Having said all this, they were content. Respectability was the most important thing as far as they were concerned.

Dickens

Do you ever look at a photo' of yourself when younger - randomly - and are suddenly hit with the feeling that the gap between that time and now has just passed almost in the blink of an eye?

I feel like that. Time just whizzes by now. We've been in our new home for three years, I'd like to make life slow down!

I've been thinking like this recently.
I'm 71, my husband 77. We've lived longer than either of our fathers did, they died in their early 60s.
I am older than either of my grandmothers were when I was a small child and remember that they both seemed so ancient!
Looking at family photos (which I don't do much as it makes me sad) I'm always amazed by how old relatively middle aged people used to look in the 50s when I was a child.

I have all my mother's family photos who emigrated from Burravoe in the Shetlands. They seemed to have a photo at every stop on their way and ended up in Liverpool,liking it so much that they stayed. I have offered the photos to someone who has built up a website to collect the names and birth and death dates of Shetlanders but have never had a reply. The website has spaces for dates I could amend. I doubt if my children will be interested.

I'm 72 next month and still working (our own business) and am definitely not old so you are still a child Biscuitmuncher, enjoy your life as much as possible - it's a gift

How awful Primrose! What a way to behave. Wishing you well xx

DH and I were on holiday abroad once and waiting at a bus stop after a day on a beach. A couple of dozen English speaking school boys arrived at the stop and then came the bus at which point one of the boys told the others to stand to one side and 'let the old people on first' - we both looked round and then realised it was us he was talking about, bit of a wake up call!

How sad Primrose. I hope that person gets their just deserts

My children have told me I'm being silly but you can't help it can be you.
Hope you will have a lovely year and bypass it

When my grandmother died she left me the contents of her house and one of the saddest things was going though her personal things - including a huge box of old photos. Most of them were the old sepia tint. Some of them had the names and dates on the back. Others I was able to identify with the help of my aunts. However about 50% of them must have been my grandfathers family and are strangers to me.

My Dad died of a heart attack at 57...I am 57 this year and like you find it upsetting and disconcerting x

I worry because my mum and her birth mum both died at 68 and I keep counting how far away it is, not far enough. I am also a diabetic for 50 years and someone told me I had reached the end now for a diabetic. Really worries me as still have daughters living with me as I need care.
Mum always dressed really nicely and would go everywhere on her bike and was really active til Dad died

I have never looked at old photos even when I was a teenager. My kids look at them I do not. However please remember that a 56-year-old, would have been very different even 20 years ago to now. Age is social construction and it changes in time, between cultures and throughout history. An aging population means 56 is fairly young, advances in science and education means we are able to stay healthier and know how to avoid thing that age us and slow us down, like smoking, fatty foods and lack of excerise . Attitudes have changed and so have expectations 56 isnt consider old by most . Look forward not backward.

I am someone who is perhaps not as interested in old family photos as others.
My DH was given some photos of his great grandparents, around 1890, in the Shepherds Bush area.
Somehow, I cant quite emotionally connect. Maybe because they are not my own personal relatives?
Also, everyone back then seemed to wear the same clothes as everyone else! I am perhaps being a bit silly.

As someone who spends quite a lot of my free time on family history research, I love looking at old photos. They help me to connect with the people I am researching and I feel it is important to think, from time to time, about our family forbears without whom we would not be here today. I do find it sad when I come across family members who have left no trace of their lives and I would certainly like to think that my descendents will look at photos of me in 100 years' time. Doubtless my grandchildren will laugh at my "old fashioned" clothes and face untouched by cosmetic surgery! Perhaps social media and digital photography will have a big influence on how we are remembered. Certainly, in the last 100 years we've gone from having just one or two family portrait photos taken on a special occasion to thousands of digital family photos which will perhaps be floating around in "the cloud" forever!

I have lots of photos in albums and our grandchildren love looking through them when they visit. Not all of them have who they are written on them but I’m trying to do this as I remember my late dad telling me that I should say who they are and when they were taken. I don’t put photos of scenery alone in the albums as I don’t think they will be of much interest to anyone else.

I don’t think the younger generation bother with getting photos printed off, it’s a pity as who knows what technology will be like in the future, will they be able to see their photos?

My dad died at 61 so no photos of him at my age-72, but mum lived to 83 and stayed smart and quite trendy till the end. But looking at my grandparents pics they do look old fashioned, but I suppose fashions have changed a lot from their 70s.
I agree with writing on old family photos for the benefit of our children/grandchildren. When mum died I inherited boxes of photos and many were doubles of those I had ie.annual school ones So I decided to make up 4 albums dating way back to the 1960-70s
I gave my 4AC one each as a Xmas present. When they opened the gift there were tears all round. Well worth the effort.

Looking at a photo of my paternal grandfather in his youth I was taken aback as my 34 year old son is the image of him.

I’m 78. I have boxes of family photos which I treasure and which I love to look at and remember all the relatives and the times we had. I’m not sad, just grateful to have known such wonderful people.

I love looking through photo albums. I have loads as does my mother , she also wrote on the back of photos with names , dates and places . I now do as well . I have lots of photos in frames around the house . Tbh I prefer photos over ornaments and nik naks .
About once a year I have a blitz on my phone and upload them to a site like Snapfish and order prints which I put in photo albums. I also upload the photos onto my desktop incase I lose my phone .
As for the passing of time . I don’t really think about it .

foxie I could have written that - or, more precisely, I wish I had! I too am happier now than in younger days, when there was a lot of strife, much grief and some stressful times.

I haven't any photos of my paternal grandparents, plenty of my maternal side and some stepfather ones, going back to circa 1853! My parents had a war time wedding on Salisbury Plain in 1941, and apart from my maternal grandmother,nobody from either family went. There were reasons, but it's all a long time ago now and didn't end well in any respect. However, with the advent of the internet and after the death of my mother I have managed to get in touch with a member of my paternal family, and he has very kindly sent me some photos of the family. Strange feeling, looking at people who have a slight look of you!

It recently occurred to me that I I'll soon be the age my Gran was when she became a Gran -59 She looks much older than I do

When my mum died I found a family photo in her flat that I’d never seen before. Thankfully there was one family member who was still alive and she named most of the people for me. Otherwise I would never have known that the tubby guy with the huge moustache who looked as if he’d stepped out of the pages of Three Men in a Boat was called Harry Fido. It’s always important to write the name of people in pencil and not biro as it’s less damaging.

As an only child, I inherited boxes of my parents' black and white photos, about 50% of them of people I couldn't name. I invited my cousin for a long weekend and we spread out the photos all over the livingroom floor and went through them identifying people and labelling them. We ended up with just a handful we couldn't name.

I don't know if my children will be interested. They were only small when my Dad died and can barely remember him, but teenagers when Mum died .... but anyway, the photos will be there for them to do what they want with them.