The following is dedicated
to my children, grandchildren, great numbers of nieces, nephews, grand
nieces and grand nephews with the hope that they will save their
snapshots, pasted to an 8x10 page of typing paper. Notes as to place with
addresses included, times, dates, and events can be made on another 8x10
page and placed on the back. These pages can be slipped into a cover of
plastic called a "sheet protector." These pages put into a loose leaf
notebook become an organized "book," and a way to save photographs and
records in a compact and orderly way. It is a lesson I have learned the
hard way after having to dig through photographs simply piled into a box.
Here is a record. It isn't
to show anything of grand or great history. If these words come to someone
of my own after I'm gone it will be what I aspire to do. There are no
solutions here.
The only thing to know is
that we are just common people who lived through a few trials and a few
successes.
There is a quote of which
I'm not able to recall completely. It says something like this. "There is
rich and there is poor." "Rich is better." I am here to note this isn't
so. I've known both and for my lot in life, poor was fine.
These saved snapshots are
testimony to that lifestyle as to having riches. Probably, the only studio
picture here is the first photograph, the one of my baby picture. The rest
of the pictures are simply quick shots of our life as it was. We raced
along always too busy to make an appointment with a photographer and were
too unwilling to pay the price he would have charged.
Why or how we had the
wisdom to just enjoy life cannot be explained. Maybe our faith going
toward fundamentalism was responsible. There was more than that too. We
didn't have time or money for education. Our Bible studies taken up to
five times a week were thorough. Through this we learned history, ethics,
patterns of behavior, social interaction, public speaking, time
management, personal hygiene, health going toward mental and physical and
much more plus it was all free. For this we are most grateful. As Christ
commanded, "feed my little sheep," so we try to use what we learned to
pass on to family, future generations, and anyone who might profit. This
is what I do now in the way of one family's effort to simply live and love
life. |