Family Keepsakes Fun, Part 3

To read more of this series, click on the family tag at the bottom of the post.

In the recent move, my family keepsakes were transferred into banker's boxes. This was done by my husband, so I have no idea what's in each box. Opening one up is like a treasure hunt. Someday, I would like to organize them so that each box is cohesive, but for now I enjoy going through them and finding random stuff. This post is going to be picture heavy because that's most of what was in this particular box.

I don't know who this dapper young man is, but I really enjoyed the various poses and props in this photo booth-like strip:

I like the juxtaposition of the two following pictures, both of which feature my great uncle (grandma's brother) and his wife and child (they're in the middle in the second picture), likely taken only a few years apart. I remember this great uncle, and his daughter. In fact, his is the first funeral I remember going to.

In the second picture, that's my great aunt (grandma's sister) playfully hiding her face, with her husband on the far left. My grandma is on the far right.

Once again, I'm not sure who these men are, but I'm amused by the high-water pants of the two men on the right. I wonder if this car actually belonged to any of them, or if posing in front of a fancy car that's not one's own has been a tradition since the dawn of cars.

I think Iola, WI is where my grandma's family lived before they moved to Michigan. I understand wanting to keep mementos from there. I don't understand wanting to keep a postcard that features the starch factory. I mean, honestly, the vast majority of my grandparents' postcard collection is downright perplexing (think lots and lots of banks).

My mother was pretty bad at taking pictures. She would often send me photos of my nieces and nephew that would make me think, "Why on earth would she think I want a blurry picture of the back of this kid's head? I can't even tell which kid this is!" And so on.

After finding the below pic, I've begun to wonder if it's a family trait. What's going on here? Why would someone want to memorialize it? I have two theories: 1. Something was buried in the sand, either as a joke or as part of a scavenger hunt, and the picture taker wanted to remember the moment it was found or 2. The picture taker really appreciated dat ass. In my heart, I believe it's #2.

I'm not 100% certain, but I think is my grandpa's sister, who owned a rock shop near where I grew up and was alive well into my adulthood:

I wonder if this is my grandpa's other sister, who I never met, but who sent me money when I graduated high school. I wanted to include this photo because I find her very beautiful, and because she's so 1930s:

This is the Daily Advance from Lynchburg, VA. The date on it is November 30, 1933. It hails from the time that my grandma worked as a telephone operator there, and it's so fragile that I don't dare open it. I'm not sure which story caught my grandma's eye, making her want to keep it. Maybe there wasn't one particular story. Maybe it was simply the last one she picked up before she moved back to Michigan.

At any rate, I wanted to include it for two reasons. 1. The copy in the subtitle under "Killer's Body Found In Ditch Skull Crushed," which (paraphrased) says, "underworld does what cops can't." A very Great Depression/Prohibition anti-cop sentiment. and 2. Under "Habeas Corpus Frees 4 Lynch Mob Suspects," the article that states that the prosecutor had the evidence to convict the men but chose not to present it AND the judge agreed.

The mind boggles.

I'm frequently blown away by how terrifying kids' Halloween costumes used to be. This is my mom as a witch:

And finally, I'll leave you with something cute, my uncle as a baby, wearing his dad's police hat: