Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Time Traveler

OK, I've promised to start writing some of my stories about my off-beat 70s childhood and our travels from upper-middle class New Jersey to hippied-out California to back-to-nature Idaho, and I will.

Having just spent the last 5 hours scanning photos, along with the obvious sidetrack that you'd expect when perusing decades-old photo albums, some of which are my mom's from a storage drawer here, with pictures I've either never seen, or rarely seen...I need a break to ponder how to turn any of it into something worth reading (or writing).

We lost our home and everything in it when I was 16, so pictures of our life prior to that are precious and few indeed.  Fortunately, many people in the years after the fire were kind enough to send us what photos they had taken of our lives up to that point, so we aren't without a record--it's just a very abbreviated one, photographically speaking.

All that to say...it's been sort of a long, odd day so far, and many memories have resurfaced, which is why pictures are so great; but our family's particular story ended with a fire, a divorce, and much distance (both in miles and emotions), and many of the people in the pictures have not had their own happy endings.  Many of the early pictures of my parents (before everything ran aground) have definitely caused new tears today.  In fact, much of my day has been spent staring at my computer screen, with silent tears streaming down my face.  And I'm not a cry-er, so...

Anyhoo.

I will start telling some of it, as I find the time and the words, but I'm not sure if any of it will be funny, or even worth putting out there.  I'm still on the fence about sharing it, because, really, none of it will matter to anyone but me, but *shrug*, I've been told often enough that most of my background is odd enough to be interesting, so stay tuned.  I will try and put a funny twist on most of it, or at the very least keep it brief.      


Yeah, like that's going to happen...



Two days Later P.S.:  As it turns out, I've decided it will only be the fun stuff.  


4 comments:

  1. Yay! Pretty excited about this...

    And don't keep it brief...I love these stories. :)

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  2. If you have doubts about sharing these stories, I suggest that you don't. I'm sure they are interesting, but if that is the only reason, entertaining others when you are not sure your comfortable with the idea, I suggest just writing it all out privately, if you can. Just my two cents, but from my own experience, I almost always regret disclosing things when at some level I am uncomfortable or have doubts or misgivings.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, this is exactly what I decided last night. I will tell the ones that are funny or off-beat, (the kind you could tell to strangers at a dinner table) but not anything that I'd regret sharing with the world. Especially with photos. Once I got looking at the pictures, that changed everything.

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  3. Thanks Michelle...I'm still pondering where to start. I did have kind of an epiphany last night and decided that, if I'm going to use some of our actual photos, then the actual stories will have to be limited to the interesting/odd/funny stories, and I will leave out most of the bad stuff that was going on behind the scenes. Out of respect. If it were completely anonymous, then it'd be easier, but it doesn't feel right to tell the whole story, warts and all, AND show pictures. If that makes sense. Maybe my mom could guest post sometime; then it would be OK, because most of the crazy stuff is really her story to tell, not mine.

    On the bright side, in the few pictures we do have..I found an actual picture of the three-legged goat! What are the odds of THAT? lol

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