That photo of you and your brother - oh my heart. You both look like you should be in the 100-acre wood with Winnie and friends. Precious. And yes, as Katie said in her comment, I love that your photos bring these memories to mind. You have completely inspired me to do this next time I visit my parents. Also, on the candid shots - I feel like there were so few taken back then, compared to what we can so easily do on our phone cameras now, where I snap 10 different pictures of the same thing to find the best one at the end - and then, I don't delete the remaining. It's photo overwhelm. Back then, the few my parents took were all so special. That seems to make those photos a little more sacred. Perhaps that's one of the reasons I don't rush to put them together in an album and they all sit on my phone, because they don't feel quite as sacred. I dunno. Love this post. Thank you for the beauty here.
Oh Kelly, first of all, THANK YOU ❤️, so very much - but also, that's extraordinary that you should say that about Winnie the Pooh because I thought the same! Now I see it - there is something very Christopher Robin about my brother in the way he's walking and that he's holding my hand speaks volumes (I don't think it had been too long since I'd come to be with my family then). And I'm really excited to hear as and when you get around to talking some shots from your family albums (that makes me SO happy!!). Also, you are so right about the not deleting or editing the bazillion takes on one moment we have on our phones now! I keep meaning to organise them. I'm right there with you. Also, the sacred thing. Thank you so much for your words, they mean so much. 🙏🤗
I love how your pictures evoke a sense of nostalgia for my own family road trips sans seatbelt. I don't think there are any pictures of our as we did not have a curator in my family.
haha, the sans seatbelts...I was just recalling with my children how my brother and I would be all over the back seat. I love that about Jenn's photos, also. ❤️
SAME!! No belts. Do you call it the "wayback" or something similar in the US, or am I making that up?! I'm so happy to hear sharing a few of our photos brought back memories of your own childhood summer trips - reading and seeing each other's words and pics can do so much to stir up our own memories, and I'm always so moved whenever you, too, share stories from your childhood and family (I can think of one or two now which remain with me, vividly, just typing this). 🙏 I love your choice of the word "curator"! That's perfect, and such a reminder of how all the pics we snap on our phones now - although I need to go through and seriously curate mine! - and the words we note in our journals (as Kelly wrote about in her Substack recently) are a way of family story keeping. And yet, even without the photos, the memories are held in our hearts. Thank you so much for this. ❤️XO
There is so much here to love! The photos are treasures, so are the memories you shared. The bonus is that you can now use these treasures to bring joy your dad. Also, you are activating memories for him.
Jen, your attention to detail in each posts adds to the depth of it. For example, the way you speak of the sundress you are wearing in a photo, and how just seeing the dress again triggers more memories. Thank you for all that you brought us in this post.
You're so kind, thank you so much Sally! And you're so right, photos can be treasures, can't they? The details we've forgotten that that bring it ALL flooding back, and with all the senses (looking at the caravan shot, I somehow remembered the HEAT of the holiday, and you can almost feel that in the dusty gravel track that surrounds it, for example). And I was only just getting out some other albums with my dad last night, in the home, and letting the photos nudge the stories and memories for us both. Extraordinary. I love how you've shared with us pictures of the home you grew up in, then and now. I'm wondering, with your recent return to your childhood town which you've been writing about, how much must've come back in sensory memories from the past, even if so much has changed? I love how you write about home, family and memories, as you know! ❤️
You really got me going and now I want to get all the albums out. They are lovely to have. I was really good when the girls were young and kept them up to date. It was well worth doing - especially when you catch them going through them and reminiscing! Unfortunately in recent years photos have all been digital and lost on phones, so my records have not been kept up to date.
For my first Christmas, my mother gave my father one of those old fashioned cine cameras. All through our childhood he captured every family occasion, birthday, holiday, family and friends etc. We use to wait with anticipation for the developed reels to come back in the post. My dad would then meticulously number and date them. We were then entertained seeing ourselves on the screen! Film showings were such fun and quality family time. For my parents 6oth Wedding anniversary my brother had all the 100s of reels made digital. We now all have a "movie" of out childhood!
Oh Anita, thank you for sharing ALL this. I know we're definitely not alone in letting the albums slide - it's so easy in the busyness of life and the flying years - but yes, so precious and so glad to have made them when we did! But the CINE CAMERA story!!! How absolutely wonderful that you were able to convert those precious movie moments, and make a digital version to enjoy - so so so precious!!! (My dad took tons of slides, and we had slide nights similarly, but no Super8/cine films until I got a Camcorder in the 90s and started taking my own of family. SO glad to have those, and you've inspired me to think about getting a digital conversion done somehow). This is GOLD, how precious for you all!! And what a way to honour your dad's efforts and all the love he obviously poured into not just making the videos, and recording the memories, but also cataloguing them. I love that. Thank you, thank you for sharing all of this. 🎥❤️
This is beautiful Jen, the photos encapsulate everything, a snapshot in time captured for eternity. They always mean so much and are worth millions. I especially love the ones of you and your brother holding hands - simply gorgeous.
I was only thinking the other day when I was taking the millionth photo of my little grandson, that I wish we had phone cameras when mine were little. I could have captured so many more magical moments and as you say those that you have of your childhood are so much more special as they are so few.
As you know, we are currently fostering and outline milestones and important visits and events in a little book. It is a lovely idea and so important for children when they are older to read to help them fill in the gaps and know every part of their journey.
Your gorgeous photos as always bring back happy memories of my own childhood caravan holidays in France of the same era - pure joy! Thank you so much xxx
Fiona!!! ❤️ Thank you so much, and I don't know where to start with this. What you share here about capturing the milestones for the little one/s as a foster parent/carer/family is too precious for words. I have endless admiration for you and all those who capture the moments and keep the story in this beyond-special context, as you think ahead of all that it will mean to a child in their future. A gift in every sense of the word. So much more than the invaluable filling in gaps of info, it's a filling of LOVE. For a child to look back and know how much they were loved and cared for, at any and every stage ... no words! On a lighter but lovely note, I'm SO happy that the Seventies French caravan pic evoked happy memories for you! You never know, we might've been on the same site at some point! 🫢🚌 (I think that might be a school bus not a caravan, but close enough?!) XXXX
Oh, Jenni, photo albums are almost a lost art. And yet, I love all our old family albums and am the one to find just the photo a cousin was wondering about. This morning I awakened thinking, "Oh, my goodness, I have to get my kids albums updated. What will they have when we're gone?"
Janis, I love this and that you're the one to be able to locate a photo from the albums, for family - it doesn't surprise me, as it's another of the many ways you show and your love for them, and how you treasure the memories and connections. ❤️ I really must get back to the albums (this winter? It's always the plan!) but, I have to admit, mine could never have been described as arty. Hence, I never did do the whole scrapbooking thing but am awe of those who did and still do, in one form or another (have you discovered Kelly Pittman's Substack yet, Becoming by Kelly B Pittman? It's beautiful - she has commented above in this thread, if you can't find her - and she just wrote a lovely piece about journalling and documenting our lives in different ways, in the pages of a book, in ways that are doable for all personality types. It's given me hope! :)) 📖🥰
Thank you, Jenni. I've kearned in my older years that getting it done will be better than artsy~ or maybe I'll throw a few stickers on the page from my massive collection when I thought I'd get it done long ago.
"I, too, find myself instantly drawn to vintage family pics on Instagram, in newsletters or on the covers of memoirs." Yes, yes, yes! Love this post and your dad's pics! xx
Oh thank you, so much, Liz!! And the beautiful, precious photo of you and your dear dad accompanying your Father's Day essay here on Substack drew me right into your poignant and powerful words and story. This means so much, thank you for commenting - I'm so happy to have connected with you here. Have a wonderful weekend! ❤️
Hi Jenni, I'm so happy we're connected here too! Thank you so much for your kind words! I look forward to reading more of your posts! Hope you've had a lovely weekend!
The random photos taken by someone trailing slightly behind have always been my favorites, and my people already know that's where they'll find me from time to time when we're together 💖
That photo of you and your brother - oh my heart. You both look like you should be in the 100-acre wood with Winnie and friends. Precious. And yes, as Katie said in her comment, I love that your photos bring these memories to mind. You have completely inspired me to do this next time I visit my parents. Also, on the candid shots - I feel like there were so few taken back then, compared to what we can so easily do on our phone cameras now, where I snap 10 different pictures of the same thing to find the best one at the end - and then, I don't delete the remaining. It's photo overwhelm. Back then, the few my parents took were all so special. That seems to make those photos a little more sacred. Perhaps that's one of the reasons I don't rush to put them together in an album and they all sit on my phone, because they don't feel quite as sacred. I dunno. Love this post. Thank you for the beauty here.
Oh Kelly, first of all, THANK YOU ❤️, so very much - but also, that's extraordinary that you should say that about Winnie the Pooh because I thought the same! Now I see it - there is something very Christopher Robin about my brother in the way he's walking and that he's holding my hand speaks volumes (I don't think it had been too long since I'd come to be with my family then). And I'm really excited to hear as and when you get around to talking some shots from your family albums (that makes me SO happy!!). Also, you are so right about the not deleting or editing the bazillion takes on one moment we have on our phones now! I keep meaning to organise them. I'm right there with you. Also, the sacred thing. Thank you so much for your words, they mean so much. 🙏🤗
I love how your pictures evoke a sense of nostalgia for my own family road trips sans seatbelt. I don't think there are any pictures of our as we did not have a curator in my family.
haha, the sans seatbelts...I was just recalling with my children how my brother and I would be all over the back seat. I love that about Jenn's photos, also. ❤️
Can you imagine the chaos?!?
SAME!! No belts. Do you call it the "wayback" or something similar in the US, or am I making that up?! I'm so happy to hear sharing a few of our photos brought back memories of your own childhood summer trips - reading and seeing each other's words and pics can do so much to stir up our own memories, and I'm always so moved whenever you, too, share stories from your childhood and family (I can think of one or two now which remain with me, vividly, just typing this). 🙏 I love your choice of the word "curator"! That's perfect, and such a reminder of how all the pics we snap on our phones now - although I need to go through and seriously curate mine! - and the words we note in our journals (as Kelly wrote about in her Substack recently) are a way of family story keeping. And yet, even without the photos, the memories are held in our hearts. Thank you so much for this. ❤️XO
There is so much here to love! The photos are treasures, so are the memories you shared. The bonus is that you can now use these treasures to bring joy your dad. Also, you are activating memories for him.
Jen, your attention to detail in each posts adds to the depth of it. For example, the way you speak of the sundress you are wearing in a photo, and how just seeing the dress again triggers more memories. Thank you for all that you brought us in this post.
You're so kind, thank you so much Sally! And you're so right, photos can be treasures, can't they? The details we've forgotten that that bring it ALL flooding back, and with all the senses (looking at the caravan shot, I somehow remembered the HEAT of the holiday, and you can almost feel that in the dusty gravel track that surrounds it, for example). And I was only just getting out some other albums with my dad last night, in the home, and letting the photos nudge the stories and memories for us both. Extraordinary. I love how you've shared with us pictures of the home you grew up in, then and now. I'm wondering, with your recent return to your childhood town which you've been writing about, how much must've come back in sensory memories from the past, even if so much has changed? I love how you write about home, family and memories, as you know! ❤️
You really got me going and now I want to get all the albums out. They are lovely to have. I was really good when the girls were young and kept them up to date. It was well worth doing - especially when you catch them going through them and reminiscing! Unfortunately in recent years photos have all been digital and lost on phones, so my records have not been kept up to date.
For my first Christmas, my mother gave my father one of those old fashioned cine cameras. All through our childhood he captured every family occasion, birthday, holiday, family and friends etc. We use to wait with anticipation for the developed reels to come back in the post. My dad would then meticulously number and date them. We were then entertained seeing ourselves on the screen! Film showings were such fun and quality family time. For my parents 6oth Wedding anniversary my brother had all the 100s of reels made digital. We now all have a "movie" of out childhood!
Oh Anita, thank you for sharing ALL this. I know we're definitely not alone in letting the albums slide - it's so easy in the busyness of life and the flying years - but yes, so precious and so glad to have made them when we did! But the CINE CAMERA story!!! How absolutely wonderful that you were able to convert those precious movie moments, and make a digital version to enjoy - so so so precious!!! (My dad took tons of slides, and we had slide nights similarly, but no Super8/cine films until I got a Camcorder in the 90s and started taking my own of family. SO glad to have those, and you've inspired me to think about getting a digital conversion done somehow). This is GOLD, how precious for you all!! And what a way to honour your dad's efforts and all the love he obviously poured into not just making the videos, and recording the memories, but also cataloguing them. I love that. Thank you, thank you for sharing all of this. 🎥❤️
This is beautiful Jen, the photos encapsulate everything, a snapshot in time captured for eternity. They always mean so much and are worth millions. I especially love the ones of you and your brother holding hands - simply gorgeous.
I was only thinking the other day when I was taking the millionth photo of my little grandson, that I wish we had phone cameras when mine were little. I could have captured so many more magical moments and as you say those that you have of your childhood are so much more special as they are so few.
As you know, we are currently fostering and outline milestones and important visits and events in a little book. It is a lovely idea and so important for children when they are older to read to help them fill in the gaps and know every part of their journey.
Your gorgeous photos as always bring back happy memories of my own childhood caravan holidays in France of the same era - pure joy! Thank you so much xxx
Fiona!!! ❤️ Thank you so much, and I don't know where to start with this. What you share here about capturing the milestones for the little one/s as a foster parent/carer/family is too precious for words. I have endless admiration for you and all those who capture the moments and keep the story in this beyond-special context, as you think ahead of all that it will mean to a child in their future. A gift in every sense of the word. So much more than the invaluable filling in gaps of info, it's a filling of LOVE. For a child to look back and know how much they were loved and cared for, at any and every stage ... no words! On a lighter but lovely note, I'm SO happy that the Seventies French caravan pic evoked happy memories for you! You never know, we might've been on the same site at some point! 🫢🚌 (I think that might be a school bus not a caravan, but close enough?!) XXXX
Oh, Jenni, photo albums are almost a lost art. And yet, I love all our old family albums and am the one to find just the photo a cousin was wondering about. This morning I awakened thinking, "Oh, my goodness, I have to get my kids albums updated. What will they have when we're gone?"
Janis, I love this and that you're the one to be able to locate a photo from the albums, for family - it doesn't surprise me, as it's another of the many ways you show and your love for them, and how you treasure the memories and connections. ❤️ I really must get back to the albums (this winter? It's always the plan!) but, I have to admit, mine could never have been described as arty. Hence, I never did do the whole scrapbooking thing but am awe of those who did and still do, in one form or another (have you discovered Kelly Pittman's Substack yet, Becoming by Kelly B Pittman? It's beautiful - she has commented above in this thread, if you can't find her - and she just wrote a lovely piece about journalling and documenting our lives in different ways, in the pages of a book, in ways that are doable for all personality types. It's given me hope! :)) 📖🥰
Thank you, Jenni. I've kearned in my older years that getting it done will be better than artsy~ or maybe I'll throw a few stickers on the page from my massive collection when I thought I'd get it done long ago.
"I, too, find myself instantly drawn to vintage family pics on Instagram, in newsletters or on the covers of memoirs." Yes, yes, yes! Love this post and your dad's pics! xx
Oh thank you, so much, Liz!! And the beautiful, precious photo of you and your dear dad accompanying your Father's Day essay here on Substack drew me right into your poignant and powerful words and story. This means so much, thank you for commenting - I'm so happy to have connected with you here. Have a wonderful weekend! ❤️
Hi Jenni, I'm so happy we're connected here too! Thank you so much for your kind words! I look forward to reading more of your posts! Hope you've had a lovely weekend!
The random photos taken by someone trailing slightly behind have always been my favorites, and my people already know that's where they'll find me from time to time when we're together 💖