Sunday, August 23, 2009

A Picture-Book Life

I've noticed on Facebook of late that some of my friends and acquaintences are posting photos from their younger years. There are pictures of them as toddlers, as teenagers, even as young adults, most of which were taken by proud parents who, I'm sure, wanted to show the world how cute their children were.


As I reflected on the fact that these people have a plethora of pictures from which to choose to illustrate the evolution of their lives, it occurred to me that I don't have many photos of me as a child. I attribute that paucity of pictures to my birth order. By the time I, child number six, arrived, my parents must have "gotten over" the need to show off their newest little beast. They'd done it before and had no doubt come to realize that yet another replay did not have the same thrill as it did the first time or two...or five.


So, my selection of childhood photos is meager, at best. I think the ones that are available to me were snapped by siblings who had not yet gotten bored with show and tell. I'm not looking at any of the photos as I write this, but memory tells me there's one photo of me as a 3-4 year-old sitting on the beach on Padre Island, surrounded by an outline of the State of Texas crafted out of sand. And there's another one, when I was a bit older, in which I am wearing shorts and a striped shirt and am topped off with a straw "cowboy" hat. Another one, as I recall, shows me standing next to the brother closest in age to me; we're both wearing some bizarre costumes for which I have no explanation.


The lack of parental propensity for pictures apparently did not leave any lasting psychological damage. I'm sure my neuroses and psychoses can be attributed to other causal factors other life experiences.

One day, when I'm energetic and have an hour or two to kill, I'll dig up what few photos there are and create a comprehensive photographic record of my youth, stored forever in magnetic media.

5 comments:

Me, You, or Ellie said...

Please? Do?

Ellie

YourFireAnt said...

What on earth are you avoiding now??






word verif: inkless

Kathy Rogers said...

You've gotta put the Texas-in-the-sand one up ASAP.

Phil said...

"Hello, cowboy in the sand..."

By then, you know, your parents probably couldn't afford film & developing.

bev said...

The Texas-in-the-Sand photo sounds pretty neat. Hope you find it. I believe you're right about photos and birth order. By the time my youngest brother came along (there were 3 kids in my family), taking pictures had probably become rather old hat. We have about 1/4 as many of his as there are of the two older kids.