Other Pictures Recently Discovered - Some Old Family & Personal Pictures

Recently, I have been doing a lot of work at my parent's old house. It is a frustrating situation, where the more work I do, the more it is revealed needs to be done. That might sound paradoxical, and perhaps it is. However, that has been the way that it has gone for a long while now. And with my back going out around the holidays, that obviously not only did not help matters, but hindered them considerably. It is not fun, to say the least.

A lot of the stuff that I encounter while doing this is nothing impressive. Much of it is crap, and frankly, it has been going straight to the garbage bags which, once they are filled up, themselves go straight out to the curb or, if the day of garbage collecting (Thursday mornings) is still a bit too far out, I take it back home with me to Hillsborough and throw it in the dumpsters there. 

Yet, there have been moments when it feels rewarding. While doing the work, I have uncovered a ton of things. These include some things that belong to other people, including my son, with some of his old toys or art work or school work. My ex also has a lot of stuff there, and when I identify it as hers, I put them to the side and make sure that she gets it. I found some stuff that belongs to other family members as well, including my brother (some music albums, his old high school yearbook, and some pictures), my mom (her books and some jewelry and other stuff), and my father (his music albums, art work, and a ton of other unidentified stuff belonging to him. Of course, I ran into some of my own stuff, as well, and some of the stuff was valuable to me. This includes my Tintin collection, some music albums, books, some of my stamp collection, and other personal effects. 

Hell, there are even some things that I cannot particularly identify as having belonged to anyone in particular. 

Among the most prized finds have been the pictures. Usually, these seem to come in drips and drabs, rather than in bulk. I will often find individual pictures, and sometimes will find old envelopes of developed pictures, as well. Only once or twice did I find a whole bunch of pictures all in one shot. And those I brought up to my parent's place in Hornell. 

However many pictures there are, they are almost always a blast from the past. Among some of the pictures in this batch are my brother with Mémé (our grandmother on our father's side). Unfortunately, I cannot precisely date when this would be, or even where. It looks like he was young enough that this would have been just before I popped into the world, but that isn't a sure thing. Nor can it be said with any degree of certainty that this was taken in France, since Mémé visited the United States during the late summer or early autumn of 1974, just before I was born. Perhaps because I was about to be born, even. So this picture could have been either in France well before then, or in the United States, although the room in the background is not so distinct as to be able to tell for sure, either way.

After that is a picture of our entire family along with Katie (the wife of my uncle or cousin Richard). She is on the right extreme of the picture, and I tried to keep a picture where most of her face is in. Most of her is cut off in the original picture, anyway. Otherwise, that is my mother and father, with my brother in between them. And at the bottom, because I was so young at the time, is me. I am wearing a memorable brown and white sweater, which someone made for me, although memory fails at the moment as to who it was. At the time, I was not especially fond of it, because it was itchy. Now, I would love to have some clothing like it again, something that has some deep personal meaning like that.

Next, there is a seriously beat up picture of me playing volleyball during one of the company picnics that my mom's job used to have in Ringwood, and which were a lot of fun when we went. 

Finally, there is one of me from the baby shower that my job at the time set up for me, and for which I am still thankful. 

I kept holding off on publishing this particular post.

Recently, I think maybe I discovered why, possibly. Not sure if it was fate or whatever, but I found some more in recent days. So it seemed like a good idea to go ahead and share them.

The first one is of my ex-wife. It was, I believe, for the baby shower, although it might have been for the wedding shower. Not sure.

After that is a picture of almost the entire French side of the family. At the very front and center are Jacques and Morissette. This picture was taken, I believe, in Saint-Pathus, a banlieue of Paris, not very far from Charles DeGaulle Airport, which I remember passing by in the past when we would go there, or come back from there. Not entirely sure when this picture would have been taken, although my best guess is somewhere in the mid to late nineties.

Finally, there is a picture of my brother when very young. He was apparently picking flowers. This was almost assuredly while we were still living in France as a family, and so I also believe that this picture must have been taken in France.

From left to right, my aunt Marie-Thèrèse, my cousin and her daughter Alma (who was known as Sylvie back then), and the father, husband, Pierrot. Guessing this picture is from the seventies, although can't be sure.