Friday Photo Flashback

With Christmas less than a week away, I found myself looking back at old Christmas photos. In many cases, there are photos of people that are no longer with us. For the ones I remember, I can look back on the photos and smile. For the ones that I don’t remember, I stare at the photos and wonder.

Case in point – the above photo was taken on Christmas 1970. In the photo I am just 7 months old. The man holding me is my Great Grandpa Becker. I only know him from photos. He would pass away just two months after these pictures were taken.

There may be other photos of him and I together, but these two are the only ones I remember. The lady standing next to us is my grandma, my great grandpa’s daughter. Despite not ever knowing him, I love the fact that he seems to be quite happy holding his great grandson. I wish I knew more about him.

Outside of the people in the photo, I do like looking at the background stuff. The first thing that screams out at me is the paneling. This may be in my grandparent’s basement, but I don’t know for sure. The Christmas tree is probably a real tree. It certainly looks that way. I seem to remember everyone having that type of tree topper as a kid.

In the picture with my grandma, those ducks on the wall I remember well. I may be mistaken, but they may have been hung on the wall of the trailer they had in Caseville long after this picture was taken. I also love that folks still dressed up for holidays. My great grandpa looks pretty spiffy in a suit. I know that there are other photos over the years where men wore suits and ties to Christmas dinner.

On that end table (which was common in SO many homes at that time) is an ashtray. An ashtray was a staple in homes when I was growing up. They pop up in SO many photos. I am going to guess that is an old beer bottle there, too. The thing that is funny about that photo is that I believe that may be an old phone book that the bottle is sitting on.

It is hard to tell, but it looks like a map of Michigan counties on the front. It also looks like the top pages are white (they would be residential numbers) and the bottom pages are yellow (the businesses). These were in every home. There was no Google back then. If you needed a number, you grabbed the yellow pages!

There are times that I wish that I could go back and look at past Christmases. You know, like Scrooge did in A Christmas Carol. I wouldn’t need to be seen or heard, I would just like to watch and observe those loved ones from the past. I would love to smell the dinner grandma was preparing. I would love to once again hear the voices of folks who I have forgotten what they sounded like. I’d love to hear my mother laughing again. I would love to relive the excitement that all of us kids felt when opening presents.

I wouldn’t go back to learn a lesson as Scrooge did. I would just like to experience it all – one more time.