[Magdalen] Old photos

[Grace Cangialosi]

I had a somewhat surreal experience a little while ago. I spent a good part of today throwing stuff out--mostly paper trash, and lots of it--and took several bags to the landfill.  I was straightening up some things and noticed a couple of pictures on the floor that looked vaguely familiar. I picked them up and discovered that they were part of a packet of pictures in one of those old photo envelopes from the drugstore. The whole thing had fallen out of an old photo album in the bookcase.

Well, there were basically three sets of pictures. The ones that had caught my eye were from my wedding in 1965. There were black and white and color snapshots from the rehearsal dinner and reception and then color pictures I took on our honeymoon to Sleeping Bear Dunes and Lake Michigan. It was really stunning to see how young we all were then...and how many of the family members have died.

The other pictures were ones I had taken at the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels. My dad was stationed in Germany, and I was a junior in high school. The black and white photos are crystal clear, and I wrote copious notes on the backs, so those are fun to see.  

I was struck by the difference in quality between the color and black and white pictures; the color ones have all faded, while the black and white ones could have been taken yesterday.

So it was an odd and unexpected little trip down memory lane this evening...