Last night at a local auction I purchased a cardboard box full of odds and ends. Mostly junk to be honest. What grabbed my eye in the bottom of the box was a cool old Westclox electric wall clock from the 1950s. The auction was about to begin and I had just enough time to hurriedly flip through a large photo album in the box. It’s not rare to come across discarded family albums at estate auctions. They’re usually being discarded for a reason. But after just a few pages of the more than 150 incredible photos I knew this one was special. When I got home I sat down with the book and poured over more than 40 years of an anonymous family’s humble and rich history. And I couldn't help but be a little saddened at the thought of this family record no longer the property the people that made it up.
In an age where the traditional family photo album is all but extinct replaced by laptop folders full of digital photos and Facebook posts this album is an amazing testament to their power and beauty. I bought the cardboard box for two dollars.
WOW! This is amazing. I find it so weird that people do this, get rid of such personal things like this and make them totally public, but what story fodder!
ReplyDeletePS. Since these are now public do you think you can use any of the images for a book cover?
ReplyDeletehey Steph, good question. since I did legally buy them and because most of the pics are over 50 yrs old I think I'd be ok. But I'd be very careful in the way I represent and present them and what story I link them to. Plus the guy in the last pic, far right with the Ray-Ban's, smoke, and classic can of Labatt's 50 looks an awful lot like Dan Akroyd and he has some serious suing cash!
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