Old Photographs

 One of the projects that I worked on before leaving Ohio was scanning old photographs onto the computer. I was busy cropping and adjusting for the fading color and should, if I am serious, store them on an external hard drive for safekeeping.

Old photographs have always fascinated me and as I have gotten older they pull on my imagination and memory even more. The memories for some events are so worn and faded with only some wispy strands of feeling flicking across. But for many pictures the smiles hold attention. The smiles say look at me. I am here in this moment of time. Some of the smiles hold promise that the present was good. Are some of them the same as those in the present day  - just social habit of doing what is expected?

The early 1950's at my grandfather's farm.

 Research has been published that demonstrates that “smiling” releases endorphins in the brain and therefore can positively effect how we feel. The researchers also swear that it take fewer muscles to smile than to frown. 

My mother came to visit for the first time in years right after I graduated from college, 1968.

My sister and I in Easter dresses that were terribly itchy.

My older sister about 1946

A philosophy professor back when I was in college made a statement that we own our faces after forty. Sure there are genetics but where do you want all your lines.  I started noticing those faces long before I noticed any lines in mine. I noticed that the smile lines do look best.

By the missing teeth it would have to be 1st or 2nd grade. The famous missing teeth years for all.

 Does the world help us smile or do we figure out how to smile so that we can make it through the world?   Besides the some of the folks in the grocery store just don’t know what to do when a stranger just smiles at them because the world needs as much light as possible sometimes.

First work....but now time for play

 

I have finished up my work commitment for this spring. I would use my working as an excuse for not posting but I know that isn’t the case. I just did other things.

Those weeks were spent waking up to the early morning alarm and drives into work. I am partial to the “rooster crowing” sound on the cell phone myself, but Remi, the small wonder dog, listens for the initial “buzz buzz” and has been known to try and find the phone and attempt to bump it with his own nose. All the dogs quickly established an attitude of resignation on workdays. They demonstrated not excitement past being fed breakfast and then looking forlorn with the knowledge that they were about to be deserted for the day.

I would call work a four-letter word if it were not for the enjoyable people that share seats around me. Evaluating educational proficiency tests is similar to working with state secrets for the amount of dollars and time that the educational departments spend on developing the test questions and the creating the rubrics used in the evaluation process. So I can’t about my interesting discoveries and observations regarding the youth of America and my thought on how their minds work but I can share that the employees that participate in the evaluation process are “stories” in their own right.

The majority of employees are retired for their first careers with balance made up of individuals that are self-employed or participants from fields that are currently struggling at this point in the economy. I have sat with lawyers, med students and the woman who had chosen to stay home and raise the children and is now getting a chance to use her college education again. Retired professors, architects, engineers, biologists, artists, graphic designers, are all sitting among rows of retired educators and government employees. There is no upper age limit. Does your mind still work? Can you see the computer and sit all day? They can use you.

I discovered an older gentlemen just last year (and he was back again this year) that looked familiar. Then I heard his voice. Sure enough, it was my history teacher for high school. I am guessing his age to be about 80. So there will be a place for me in the future if I want to continue to earn additional money each spring to support my hobbies and life’s added adventures.

For now, as I mentioned above, my work commitment for this spring has ended. I turned down the next 2 large projects. It is time to make my final preparations for summer travel to Alaska! The gas money has been banked it is time to pack for serious.