While I was visiting, Mom showed me some old pictures, all kept together in a frame in a sort of montage, that had belonged to her sister.

There are a couple of pictures of my aunt and uncle, one of my cousin when he was a boy, one of her favorite minister (he looks like a nice man), and several of my aunt and her friends.

My favorite pictures are the older ones, the photos of my grandmother, her siblings, and her parents. And the one very bad picture of my grandfather. There never were very many pictures of Grandpa. He was gone a lot. He was in the army, so involved in war whenever possible, but even when he wasn’t he was often gone for months at a time. He and Grandma didn’t exactly get along well, so he made himself scarce. Mom didn’t have any idea where he was when this picture was taken. It was probably a decent—not great, but reasonable—picture when it was new, but it’s probably at least 50 years old at this point, and time has not favored it.

These next two are my favorites. This first is of my great grandparents. I don’t know when it was taken, but judging by their clothing it was before women bobbed their hair and cut their hems, so maybe sometime around 1910 or so? I’ve no idea. Just guessing. This set of great grandparents was from Sweden. He came over first, probably in the mid 1870s, leaving her in Sweden to care for their baby son. He worked his way across the country to California, sending money whenever he could. He evidently stopped by Minnesota for a while, but there were too many Swedes there, so he moved on.

About twelve years after he left great-grandpa sent for his wife and son. After she came out they had three more children. My grandmother, born in 1900, was the youngest. This was seems to be some years later, as the children are all grown. Yet great-grandma is still wearing more traditional skirts. Standing, from left to right are the oldest son (Vic), Hilda, and Clarence. Seated are great-grandpa (Karl), Esther (my grandmother), and great-grandma (Augusta).

I don’t know when my great-grandparents died, but it was a long time before I was born. Their eldest son was next. Clarence was always Mom’s favorite uncle. He sounded wonderful. Who wouldn’t love an uncle who pressed two desserts on you if you couldn’t finish your dinner, because “growing children have to eat something.” Clarence died in his 70s of something that today he probably would have lived through when Mom was pregnant with me. I got to know Hilda and Grandma. Hilda was 86 when she died when I was 19, then Grandma went about five or six years later in her mid 80s.

Thank you for sharing this trip down memory lane with me. I hope you can find some old photos of your family, and get to know them a little bit. It’s a wonderful thing.

P.S. This is definitely the last time you’ll hear from me for more than a week. If I’m lucky, I’ll have access to Ravelry when I’m gone, but don’t hold your breath.