Old Photographs - Relieving Stress on Memory Lane

My grandparents, taken around 1920 - Classic portraiture is timeless when it's done right!

My grandfather at 17

by Skip Cohen

​It's a typical Sunday morning, although I'm looking forward to turning the clocks back, so the puppies' first trip out in the morning isn't in the dark! There's a lot I'm looking forward to, like the end of the pandemic and trash mailings from both presidential candidates. What would happen if just once, instead of spending millions on over-sized postcards attacking the other candidate, they put the money into school lunch programs or helping the homeless?

Meanwhile, sorry about going off on a mini-rant - what I want to write about is one of the ways I'm  surviving the pandemic. It started a few years back when Throwback Thursday became a weekly event. Turning back the clock once a week was fun to do, especially when it came to sharing old photographs of people we all know from the industry,

Well, in the process of needing to clean my home office this week, so furniture can be moved for a new floor, I've been finding old photographs from my grandmother's album. Then Sheila was cleaning out a closet and found pictures in her stash of memories over the years. 

Now take it all one step further: I started sharing these with my hometown Facebook group. It's 12,000+ strong, with people who remember my family, especially my grandparents. My grandfather had a hardware store for fifty-two years in Fairport Harbor, Ohio. He did business on a handshake, which included credit for anybody who needed a little more time and never charged interest. 

Here's my point - the pandemic has been awful for all of us. I'm not suggesting it's been easy to keep a good attitude and be optimistic, but like Zig Ziglar's old line - "It's your attitude that determines your altitude, NOT your aptitude." And taking regular walks down Memory Lane isn't just fun; it's interactive. These old photographs have kept me focused on the importance of what most of us do for a living - help people capture memories.

If you're looking for a great way to get away from the stress we're all faced with these days, find that album, drawer, trunk, or shoebox of old photographs! They'll give you a little respite from the challenges, and at the same time, remind you of the incredible career path you chose when you picked up your first camera!

Wishing everybody a day jam-packed with smiles, peace, and great memories. And remember, whatever happens today, will be a trip down Memory Lane years from now!

Happy Sunday...or Monday if you're on the other side of the world!

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