Feeling the passing of time

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

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'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.

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 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.

I have lots of photos of my parents. I was an only child and when I married my parents would often come to stay with us so many photos were taken. Sadly we never had children and I often feel really old at 68. I guess when it’s me and my husbands time to go, all the photos will end up in the bin with no one to leave them to.

When my sons turned 40 I made them each an album of their 40 years of life. They were quite pleased with the albums.

My mother had Alzheimer’s for the last 8 years of her life so her short term memory was very poor. However about a couple of years before she died we sat together over a number of evenings talking about all the people in the family photo albums which went back over a 100 years. She could name most people and we worked out the others. I was so pleased because she really enjoyed talking about her childhood and it brought us closer together again.

Treetops05 that's it, it feels so strange

My family, though small in numbers, have a history of longevity so, hopefully, will follow suit being in my 89th year. Looking at old photos I love that my dainty mother always looked so smart. My father, after he left the Army, was always very smart and quite 'with it'! On the other hand, photos of me with my paternal grandmother show her looking 'frumpy' and old when, in fact she could only have been in her late 30s esrly 40s.
Sadly, I don't look at my late (lovely sailor) husband's photos as I find it too emotional, even though I have been a widow for 24 years. I have also been burning a lot of holiday photos and those of friends that no-one else would know or be interested in. With mobile phones used these days, I doubt people will have quite as many 'hard copies'.

I have very few, probably 5 in total, of me as a child and none at all as a baby or preschool. Didn't put much thought to the situation until grandchildren arrived. Often wonder why there were no photos. I have two of my DM, one when she was 25 and very glamorous and one in her late 30s very 1940s housewife. My wedding album has two with both DM and DF and I can definitely see myself in DM. Just wish there were more pictures of parents and my own young life.

foxie48 What leaped out at me reading your post was your happiness as you’ve gotten older. I’ve experienced the same - my 70’s is my happiness decade! (I’m 76)

Ali08 I’m sorry you lost family pictures by previous family members/people. That is unforgivable. There’s just so much history in pictures.

Grandma70s and Dickens I treasure any and all pictures from the past of my family, children, even myself - as a toddler when we came to America as refugees, my childhood, my working years, 2 marriages. In the blink of an eye I can recall events and situations. (even though I can’t remember what I did last month 😆)

I am never sad when I look at pictures of my deceased parents, my sister, a nephew. I celebrate their lives! I never knew or met my two sets of grandparents because of WWII.
USA Gundy

Keep treasuring all those family photos. Never assume children won't want them. Once you've passed on they will feel very differently and these things will become important to them as they get older. Just remember to keep labelling them and preferably sort them into family groups. I keep mine in labelled envelopes.

I run a small genealogy group and it is so exciting when someone finds a picture of their ancient ancestors. One lady never knew her father ( she was brought up in an orphanage ) and we found a picture of his very elaborate tombstone which she has since visited. It was an emotional meeting that one!

This is my family photo. I do wish I could have talked to mum about it and never knew how she came by the picture…

For my 100th birthday I was given a photo book of photos of me right from the age of two paddling in the sea and others in my WAAF uniform.
I have a photo of my grandma aged seventeen looking very grown up with huge hat and bustle. My mother threw away some interesting photos of my father on his camel taken in Egypt during the 1914 war.
What a pity that now all photos are on phones.

Bijou

For my 100th birthday I was given a photo book of photos of me right from the age of two paddling in the sea and others in my WAAF uniform.
I have a photo of my grandma aged seventeen looking very grown up with huge hat and bustle. My mother threw away some interesting photos of my father on his camel taken in Egypt during the 1914 war.
What a pity that now all photos are on phones.

Historians are really going to struggle to access original source material in the future.

we were a family who kept photos, more important occasions in albums etc but then lots went into the green trunk. We always wrote date and who was in the photos on the back. Saved loads of arguments as to when and where the picture was taken. When we were young you had best clothes and not a great load of choice, so people were often wearing the same clothes in pictures a year apart. On a horrible wet winters day, if we felt bored we would say can we get the photos out etc. Had much fun, laughing at the clothes - which now of course I think my mother looked very good in the new look circu 19454, We shrieked with laughter when we found a photo of a young man in uniform with the message on the back stating "Longing to show you egypt Betty" etc and did much sorting out and working out relationships etc . I do say to people these days do take some paper photos of important occasions because if you have it all on your phone or a cloud and you lost your phone you would lose all that important photo. I have patches of looking through photos, and can feel sad especially of pictures of my dear husband who has since died, but generally I accept them as reminders of other times but one of the few things of being a widow and living on my own is that I now live in any way I want, dress for comfort and practicality, and am still interested in many things and people I have known over the y ears. Still singing, travelling when I can and like meeting new people. What I or they, look like isnt important to me, so as long as I and my clothes are clean I just try to make the best of the day and dont worry what I look like

I have photos of my Mum and Dad which I put in lovely frames and they are on display but it was a long time before I could look at them properly because it made me very upset.
I can now dust them and have a proper look. Does that make sense?

Bijou

For my 100th birthday I was given a photo book of photos of me right from the age of two paddling in the sea and others in my WAAF uniform.
I have a photo of my grandma aged seventeen looking very grown up with huge hat and bustle. My mother threw away some interesting photos of my father on his camel taken in Egypt during the 1914 war.
What a pity that now all photos are on phones.

Well congratulations on reaching 100 years! I will never make it myself. The photo book must have been amazing to cover such a timespan, and something to treasure. Pictures of ancestors are so special because there are so few of them.

I do wonder what will happen to today's photos. My daughter takes thousands of pictures of the children, but will anyone ever look through so many? They are in the cloud so will anyone be able to find them in the future?

Some years back I read an article abour a family who take an annual photo against a plain back drop. They started with one baby and then continued from then on each year. They wear their favourite clothes. The article showed the photos over 20+ years. So the children changed from babies to 6 footers. Clothes styles changed and hairstyles...and colours. I wish I had done that from early on in marriage. I do recommend to young relations. Maybe they do...or don't.

Bijou, congratulations on reaching a hundred. You are very much on the ball and enjoying life. I worry now about how I would cope if I get really old, I suppose a lot is down to life style and your health, most of my time is looking after a house too big for me.
I have reduced my photographs down to three shoe boxes, any photos of people I don't know, views and similar, have been shredded. Pictures of my parents take up a bit, oh to see them again, those of my daughter and I together smiling and happy have me in tears as she estranged me years ago, so I don't look at my photos often, I have a picture of all of us on the wall and grandchidren doted about, always keep a photograph of me and my husband, one by my bed, in the kitchen and sitting room and in my purse. Looking at him makes me happy, sorry he's not here of course, but I feel his presence somehow.

Yesterday a song came on the radio that really upset me, Waterloo sunset by the Kinks, I used to get a bus from Camden town to Trafalgar square
with friends,we hung out around the West end and along the Thames,meeting up with friends from over the river, sadly 4 have passed away recently, lost touch with the others, but from time we would phone and chat on Whatsapp,
I just had to turn off the radio I was so upset

I learned to stop listening to music if something sad happened because there were several songs that I’d really liked at a time when something sad happened. There was a Nik Kershaw song that I loved at a time when my neighbours son died in a car crash. I still can’t listen to it without being overwhelmed by grief. A 10,000 Maniacs song that I played in the car when my dog was pts and a AHa song that came on the car radio the night my dad died. Having said that I don’t listen to music much now which seems strange because I played music constantly. But I struggle to listen to what had been the soundtrack of my life these days.

Lovely pics Stangran and Maybee thanks for sharing.

Bijou I have some pics of my dad in North Africa in WW2. Have a small old suitcase of old pics * cards etc. which I rescued from my M&D's bungalow after they both passed away.

Yes, I have songs that I can't listen to as they bring back sad memories.