This picture of Emma reminded me of one that my mom had taken of me when I was 15 months old...they both make me laugh.

Today, while creating said slides, I remembered a sight recommended my Marko, president of Youth Specialties.  This site is called Speechable.  It is basically a site where you can add comic book-like speech bubbles to pictures on your computer. 

Now all I was in need of was a good picture or two.  That is where resource number two came in to play.  The beauty of Google is that you can type in what you are looking for and 9 times out of 10 you'll find what you're looking for from the get go.  There are also times when you don't find what you're looking for, but instead something much much better. 

What I went to Google initially looking for were the "vintage" pictures that seem to have become so popular like this.  What I found was something much better.  Old Pictures.  That's right.  Old Pictures.com is the place you want to go for some grade A material.  Here are a couple of slides that I put together.  I didn't take too much time on the wording so stop prejudging me. 

Hopefully you can get as much of a kick out of this as I did.  Enjoy.

Confirmation

Homecoming Float

Homecoming (I think?)

Steve Tulipana's going away party

Michelle and Heather - Last day of school

Kelly, Sam, and Sue - Last day of School Picnic

What I've been able to find out about the genealogy site is that for free you can search for information about your family history.  It seems that people find old family photos in their attic or at flea markets and send them into deadfred.com, who then digitize and index these pictures.  If you find a picture of one of your ancestors they supposedly give you the original for free.

It's hard to say how this site manages to identify some of these pictures.  Apparently, some of them come unlabelled and unidentified from boxes of old photos found at flea markets.  I guess if you are interested in whether anyone has turned in any pictures of your ancestors to this website it might be worth a free look to see if they have anything.  With only a few tens of thousands of photos, however, chances are pretty slim that you will find great-grandpa's baby pictures.

Anyway, there was the amazing dead horse near the gate of our friend's home, and later in the day, I crawled under their front porch--a high porch--and there I found an old book. I hauled it out, and of our hosts who were sitting with my parents on the porch, I asked if I could have the book. My dad protested, and there followed the first course in social graces that I can recall, "Shirley, you don't ask people to give you things."

I couldn't read at three, I know that, but what has developed into an enthusiasm and attachment to the printed page must have begun early in my life...and continues...and around me at all times are lots of books. Usually books bring me pleasure, but through the years they have also been sources of grief, such as times when I turned them in late at the library and must pay a fine.

"Once, I lost a book and was scared of the library for a while, that is, until I got the money together to pay for the mysteriously vanished tome. I don't know if I thought the librarian would send a policeman to my door or that someone would snatch me off the bus one Saturday in order to extract the price of that book. What a relief when I had paid the debt and again could stride up the central steps and check out more books." From my book, Road Tales.

My favorite childhood book was The Boxcar Children, and I cannot tell you how many times I read that account of a family of orphans who settled into a boxcar to live. The illustrations were vivid black and white cuts, but I suspect I would have seen them had there been no pictures, for in my mind, they were alive. I walked with them as they prowled about a dump to get dishes and pots and pans, and as sickness befell them. Many years ago, when we were still pastoring in Rialto, I found and bought an old copy of that book, but alas, I took it to our school there, and somehow it never returned home. That saddens me, for I wish I had that copy back.

My second favorite was actually a group of books, biographies of great Americans: scientists, inventors, social workers. I have three old ones at home in Crestline, and one day I will take a picture and show them to you. I loved those books, and as I write here I remember learning of Jane Addams through that series. I even recall the opening pages that told of her being a small girl sweeping the porch and the wind kept blowing leaves to the spot she had cleared. You may know she formed the Hull House in Chicago.

A few weeks ago I saw in a thrift store a sign that read: All Books 10 cents each. My heart thumped, my hands were eager, but my mind put the skids on my plans to fill a basket: Remember, you live in a motor home. Okay, okay, I snarled at the sensible section of my brain, and came home with just a small stack.

Some years back, I made an attempt at counting the books in our home, and came up with a number around 3000. We probably don't have that many now, for I've earnestly tried to downsize lots of things. When we first moved into our Rialto home, we had beautiful library shelves built in what was designed to be the living room, but which we called the "piano room," for in there we had a grand piano, a couch, a desk, and hundreds of books. When Jerry retired from pastoring, we put our things in storage for four years and traveled extensively in our motor home. After that, we purchased our Crestline home, which didn't have enough shelves for our books, but we've installed shelves since then. From the time we took our things from storage, I've been culling our books, but I must confess there are still boxes of them in the basement.

Why then did I come from the thrift store with these?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-0oPs9J7kA

And one more for now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoipPaq85WQ

I'll try to put up some more in the coming days.  I have the whole show on DVD and I'm working on making some more clips.  If you remember one you'd like to see request it.  :^)

Jason

At that time, I was mostly interested in exploring graphical compositions it seems.

View more here: http://jasmincormier.wordpress.com/2008/08/14/old-pictures-part-ii/

(My Great-Great-Great-Grandfather Giuseppe. Taken in Bari, Italy)

(My Great-Great-Great-Grandmother "?" lost track of her first name. Taken in Bari, Italy)

(My Great Grandparents (Francesco & Niccoletta) , with my Grandfather. Taken in N.Y., N.Y 1927-29)

(The Boarding pass from the boat that landed on Ellis Island)

(My Grandparents Joseph & Josephine, with my mother Rosemary. Taken in Brooklyn 1952-53)

Some Holy Cards they brought with them from Italy: