I am not sure exactly where this saying comes from, but it is certainly true. I get pictures of the little ones from Alaska. That helps me keep up with the way they are growing. I get pictures from the kids when they are in college. That is the way I keep up with them as well. Last summer I had pictures from Africa as Carly worked there.

The only thing I think about is what are they doing with the actual pictures? Recently I saw a picture of an older lady looking through a photograph album. That brought back so many memories. I have a lot of photo albums. I can take them out and look at them any time I want. I have actual pictures from the weddings – mine and Dick’s, Jill’s, Todd’s, and mine and Don’s. When I look at them, I remember all that was going on.

I also took pictures on my trips. It is fun to look back and remember the trips. So many of the people I traveled with are gone. But we made such good memories. I made scrapbooks of several of the trips. I dig them out and look at them from time to time. Although I was using a digital camera, I took time to make pictures so that I have them to look at.

Today I think there are thousands of pictures taken that never get made into pictures. They are stored on the device that took them.

Will they be there forever? Who knows? I do know that some of the photos that I took are no longer accessible. We took movies. I no longer have anything to view them on so they are lost to me. I much prefer the prints that I can pick up at any time.

The same thing is true for my diaries. Every once in a while, I take one out and read through a year to see what was going on. I can almost remember the day that I wrote the entry. I guess I gave good descriptions. As I read, I can picture the day. That might not be true if I put them on my computer. Some of my files are not available. My first computer was an Apple. I can no longer get at those files.

Whatever you do be sure you can see photographs that are important to you. You will get old someday and want to look back at them. If you made pictures, you can take them out and look at them. You will not have to go to the cloud to look for them or whatever is available at the time.

I made scrapbooks for each of the grandchildren from the time they were born until they graduated from high school. They took me a lot of time to create but it was worth it. They have a documented history of their development. The youngest child never got to know his grandfather so I took pictures of the graves so they would know the people we talk about. I also included photos so they could see the people.

When you are older memories are important. They tell you to bring pictures from home for the people in facilities to have to look at and remember. The older people I visit like to reminisce. Pictures help them.

As I look at the pictures of when my youngsters were young, I almost feel young again. I remember the year the fields were too wet to get the machinery on. We picked the corn by hand. How do I know? There are pictures. I recall the holiday when Grandma wore a casserole cover over her hair to keep dry. Once again there are pictures.

In 2020 I thought I would have graduation pictures for Carly and Jared.

Guess what? COVID stopped all graduations. The only picture I got was of the parade of cars through Russell. I had nothing from Penn State.

I remember taking wedding pictures to Alaska to show Melanie and her family. They were not able to attend the ceremony. It was a way that they could see the ceremony. My son-in-law took the pictures so I have them. Once again I took the time to make the pictures.

I think I will go grab an album and time travel back to when the sun was shining and we were picking cherries.

That would be a welcome relief from this snow that we are experiencing. But, after all, this is winter in western Pennsylvania!

Ann Swanson writes from her home in Russell. Email her at hickoryheights1@verizon.net.