Glances into the past

It's fun to look at old pictures of family members. In them, we can see glimpses of history that we can apply to our own lives and our own situation. It's fun to think of how we might have been had we lived in a different time and place. I look at this picture, and I think of Bonnie and Clyde I know it had nothing to do with notorious outlaws, but it's amusing to imagine.

The picture is of my grandfather, Ted Bingham, when he was just a young man with his sister, May, and his aunt.

Even the styles of children's have changed over time. I know some of the stories of the children in the picture, but I like to entertain myself with stories that may have taken place in years past.

These rigid poses of pictures seem so formal and stiff. It's obvious that grandpa Ted, the man to the right, is uncomfortable with a hat and a tie. What was he like? Would we have been friends?

Sometimes attics hold trunks of old clothes and paraphanalia from the past that lend themselves to fantasy and feed our imaginations. Do you think that Andrea makes a good little spinster or that Robert would make a good gunslinger?

One of our trips to South Dakota gave us such an opportunity for imagination, remeniscing and amusement. The photographer's shop was full of costumes and props from the past, and some that weren't even old, but were fun to put on as we posed for some family pictures. Popo insisted that we find something authentically Mexican. With a serape and a sombrero he strolled down his memory lane, and Aubrey found some white gloves and a parasol to assist her in her fantasy.

This family portrait was especially fun because the backs of the dresses and suits were open. They looked good in the photo, but we felt some exposed. It was good that we had one another to cover our backsides.

The Bonnichsen's and the Vances have some "fantasy" fotos to remember their pasts. We didn't really travel back in time, but we had a really enjoyable afternoon exercising our imaginations.