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When I was young, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents, especially before I was old enough to go to school. Staying with Pa and Granny was the start of my love of photography. Since the family was spread out, Granny loved getting pictures, so much so that she put every single picture on her front wall. It was covered with pictures, most without frames. Granny used whatever was handy to pin or tack the pictures on the wall. I would sit and stare at the pictures and ask questions about the relatives, as well as seeking out the ones that I was in. It became a kind of game to see if I could point to the pictures and tell each person, where they lived and my relationship to them.

One year, Granny and Pa had their picture taken at one of the local photography studios. I don’t know how many pictures they bought for the family, but I do remember the framed 8X10 portrait that hung in the top left hand corner of the living room, between the gas heater and a small end table. I don’t have any good pictures of them so when I saw it hanging in a relative’s house, I asked if I could scan it. Now, here it is digitized for the world to enjoy.

How I cherish those times when I was a boy. I remember my Granny, a short farm woman, would get up every morning and make my Grandpa and me a hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, buttermilk, orange juice, biscuits and gravy - for Pa, it was sweet-milk gravy (known to some people as Red-Eye gravy or white gravy), but for me, the house specialty - chocolate gravy! Yumm! It makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

After breakfast, we would go outside and I would play while my grandparents did yard work. Granny and Pa, having moved to the “city” from the country, remained true to their upbringing and turned their yard into a veritable Eden. There were peach and apricot trees, rose bushes, green onion plants, holleyhocks, honeysuckle, grapes, and raspberry vines. When they moved to town, Pa brought along a large sandstone rock that he placed in his yard and filled every day with water for the cats. Sometimes they would sit on the porch and watch the cars go by while I made mudpies. I would take water from the rock and mix it with dirt in Granny’s old butter bowls which I would then put in the trees to “bake”. In the afternoon, we would all take a nap then go back outside for more playing and car watching. Sometimes Pa and I would go out back to his tool shed. I’m never sure what he did in there, because he never made anything that I remember, but he had a bunch of old tools and nails and stuff that he would arrange and clean. While he did that, I would play with my Tonka tractors. Once in a while, Granny would get out her “marble board” and dice and we would play a game of “Wahoo.” (The board wasn’t made of marble, rather it was made of wood and used to play a game of marbles.) In the evening, it was back to the porch for car watching, and sometimes a snack of cookies and milk or biscuits soaked in buttermilk.

I count myself to be the luckiest of the grandkids. My dad was the youngest in his family, so all of my cousins were older. My siblings, who came along after my Dad remarried, didn’t have very many years with Granny and Pa before Pa died and Granny’s alzheimers made her into a different person. I don’t know if any of the older cousins got to know then the same way that I did because they all lived in different towns and didn’t get so see them as much. My Grandpa had a heart problem that caused him to be hospitalized over Christmas vacation my freshman year in high school. Since I was old enough to stay with him and since I was out of school, I was choosen to keep him company all week. I don’t think anyone else of my generation was ever able to spend such quality time with him.

Many pictures. Many memories. If you don’t have a good picture of your family, I encourage you to go get one. In the very least, get someone to take a snapshot. Years from now, your family will thank you for it.

-Texaiano

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It’s now the middle of May, and one day after Mother’s Day. May is full of family activities. There’s high school and college graduation. Most high schools put their prom during May. As I mentioned in my “Foto Memory Minute” yesterday, there are a lot of local festivals and rodeos to attend. So, what have you done to strengthen your family this month? I wanted to highlight two or three opportunities in particular.

Perhaps this is a day late, but yesterday was Mother’s Day here in the U.S. Did you do something nice for your mother? Did you call her and let her know that you were thinking of her and tell her thanks for all of the sacrifices that she made while she was raising you and for all of the nice things that she did for you? If not, it’s not too late.

I know it’s not a perfect world. If it were, every one would have a dear mother who met them at the door after school with a hug and a plate of warm, homemade cookies. In reality, divorce and sheer economic realities have forced many mothers out of the home. So…if you don’t have a mother to show your appreciation to, what about your grandmother, aunt, sister or wife? Even if you have daughters, they will grow up to be mothers some day. Mother’s day is a day to recognize not only our mother, wife and grandmother, but all women in general - that special aunt, not to mention our daughters, cousins, and nieces. So, go ahead and reach out to the women in your life. Aside from the usual flowers, jewelry and chocolate, you can make a unique gift by putting together a photo montage of all of your favourite snap-shots to present to her. Don’t forget to call or visit them too. As mom always says, the best and most thoughtful gifts don’t come from the store.

Memorial Day, at the end of May, is another special day set aside for honoring special people - the nation’s fallen veterans. Now, I don’t want to get into a debate about the merits of the current conflict. What I do want to do, however, is to remind you to support the troops. Remember and honor the men and women who serve in the nation’s military, both in the present conflict, as well as the past. Draw your family together and do something for the troops - write cards, put together care packages, raise a flag to pole and fly the flag…whatever. Just do something together. By honoring the veterans as a family, you instill a sense of pride, community and ownership in your children. You also build memories. Even though technically Memorial Day is designated to honor fallen veterans, and Veterans Day is meant to honor living veterans, you can still take this opportunity, if someone in your family has served in the military, your father, uncle, grandfather, brother, or son, make them the guest of honor at a family awards banquet that focuses on their story of heroism. You can also interview your veteran and record their story in your family history. If you don’t have any veterans in your family, and don’t have any desire to get involved with today’s military people, pick a military conflict in our nation’s history and have each family member research it. Try to be as fair and unbiased as possible and then get together to share the history that you have discovered. You can get pictures of past conflicts from the National Archives to add to a scrap book or digital scrap book.

Memorial Day is also the start of the summer bar-b-que season. Gather all of your family and friends around. Have everyone bring their favorite outside dish. And enjoy good food, good company, and good weather. (Even our VEGAN friends can enjoy a backyard bar-b-que, since there are no rules limiting a cook out to sausage, hamburgers, ribs and brisket.)

Now that you are armed with some new ideas, go out and make some memories with your family.

-Texaiano

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“Give me a minute and I’ll give you a lifetime.”

Two of my goals here at fotofamilymemories.com is to inspire you to build stronger relationships with your family. I also want to help you capture those memories through photography and art. To that end, I am introducing two new regular features. Continue Reading »
New Features - “Foto Family Minute” and “Foto Memory Minute”