Uncovering forgotten memories

Two blog posts in one day.
For a man my age, that's pretty impressive, that I can continue to perform like this.
Didn't even need any little blue pills, either...

The other day, I was cleaning out the trunk of the car, making room for when I go back to Julie's place after her visit this weekend.

I've a bag of tools, some useful and some not, and other "stuff". I was never a boy scout, but I know the value of "being prepared". Never know when I might need a plastic cup (Julie's brother used it a couple weeks back when we were waiting for the tow truck to show), or a spare flashlight (just checked the batteries in it and it shines bright).

One thing I'd found, that I'd forgotten was in there, was an old and very cheap 35mm camera. It's something you'd find at the check-out counter of K-Mart or Wal-Mart these days. It's got a fixed focus, flash...and not much more than that.

But it was loaded.

It said there were about six shots left on the roll, so I brought it in the house and started shooting random stuff, just to finish it off. Took the roll out and took it to Target to get the pictures developed.

The next day, when I picked up the pictures, I was surprised. I found these three photos of an amazing sunset I'd long forgotten...

These were taken, as near as I can tell, about 8 years ago about five miles from here. The Ames department store (seen in the photos) has long closed and the building itself was demolished, but I recognized it.

What was more surprising was the next photo in the stack:



My Kid. This had to have been taken sometime before 2000. She hadn't had the cataract surgery...she was still wearing thick-ass glasses. She's holding her Huggy Bear, the teddy bear she's had for the last 12+ years (and still has to this day, although that bear's been through quite a bit). There's some other decorations that are in the background that I haven't seen in some time.

Seeing this kinda took me back for a second. It was a "blast from the past" as it were, a surprise I wasn't expecting to see. Still, it's all right. It's just a memory from an earlier time to be savored today.

The other photos weren't as interesting. Some shots of the back yard, with birds playing in the birdbath, a squirrel running around, traffic out front. The usual. Still, it was nice to see pictures like this. Rather like opening a time capsule and finding hidden treasures, this was something from a different era, a different time, and was a pleasant surprise.