Bits and Pieces

When one of our sons was here last week, he graciously agreed to spend some time and help me go through a box of old photographs.  We have several big boxes of pictures because we took photos like mad fools every chance we got — holidays, family vacations and outings, or without any excuse at all, for that matter. We still do it, but with digital shots now — but because the places that developed pictures in the “old days” gave duplicates, we have a ton of paper photographs.  A plethora of pictures, I like to say.  My son and I made some decent progress, and got one of the larger boxes sorted. In the process, we discovered a photo of a friend of his, taken when she was about fourteen years old and we lived on an island off the east coast. It was a funny picture and I couldn’t resist posting it on her Facebook page, because she happens to be my Facebook friend as well.  Admittedly, it can be a little dicey, putting something on someone else’s page without their permission but she loved seeing it — and I know this for two reasons:  One, because she told me — and two, because she reposted it, so more people down the line would see it.  Afterwards, she wrote me a note, remarking how odd it was for her to think that so many years later, other people have bits and pieces of her. I was fascinated by her colorful phrasing and admit that I hadn’t really ever thought of it that way. I like her concept of hanging on to actual bits and pieces of people, through the photographs we keep.