Husband: I have this one taped to my monitor. He does not normally give off a sexy vibe (he’d laugh his ass off if he could see me typing this), but in this pic he looks quite studly. He’s sitting on the couch in our apartment from the second year we were married, leaning forward, looking intensely at the camera (me), a little curl flopping onto his forehead. Hands loosely clasped in front of one knee, wedding ring on top (he’s all mine!). Snug blue jeans, turquoise shirt unbuttoned just enough to show a shadow of chest hair. Yowza.
And perched on his shoulder is our little yellow parakeet Zak. Just that one silly little element in an otherwise hot (to me) picture captures what I love about him.
Mother: Standing in a barnyard, smiling at me while she strokes the face of her favorite horse, Buck (who lived to be about 40 or so). That was when her weight was low enough that she could ride, and she took it upon herself to get a saddle and tack, lease a horse, and spend her evenings and weekends doing something she loved, instead of sitting home looking at my dad. She was very happy during that period of her life. She’s since had to give it up.
Grandparents: Not my real ones, but some nice old folks that lived next door while I was growing up. After I moved away, I still stopped over to see them when I was home visiting. After Grandpa died, it was harder to visit Grandma because she was depressed and had a very sour outlook. She would cry because she was lonely and because her own family wouldn’t visit. But if you could get her to talk about the old days when she was younger, she had some amazing stories and it got her mind off the present. Every so often she would give me a small token gift. One was a framed photograph of the two of them in their tiny house: Grandpa in the dining-table chair where he always sat, his ashtray on the table with his hand-rolled cigarettes, Grandma behind with her arms around him, their kitchenette visible behind. He lovingly called her “Curly” and praised her soft skin until the day he died. Now that she’s gone too, I’ll never see the inside of that house again, never get another of Grandpa’s whisker rubs, never hear Grandma’s colorful slang. I’m glad I have the picture to remind me.
What are your favorite photographs of the people you love?
Well, my favorite one of my mom and my favorite one of hubby are both from my wedding.
Mom She is in a wheelchair (needed in the last few months of her life), wearing a dress that she loved, bought specifically for my wedding, and my husband is kneeling beside her. She has her arm around him. Due to protracted illness, I hadn’t seen her looking happy in a long time, and since she died less than three months later, I may have never seen her looking happy again. But in that photo, she looked happy.
Husband There is one particular wedding photo of the two of us dancing together. Many folks think my husband is very serious and non-emotional, but this is so not true! His emotions are not very close to the surface, but they’re definitely there, and in this particular photo, he looks happy and amused. My FIL says it’s the wedding photo where we look happiest. We’ve never had the nerve to tell him that we were reminiscing over some good times we’d had in a particular bean bag chair about a year after we started dating! I should add that a semi-serious illness had me sexually inactive for about two weeks before the wedding. By the time I recovered, it was only three days till W Day, so hubby romantically suggested we wait til our wedding night to resume activity. One of the reasons he looked so happy was cuz he knew he was gonna get some!
I have one of my kid displayin’ his fancy vacation threads, lookin’ stylin’ at age 15 months at work. I carry his mothers old drivers licence picture in my wallet. Damned attractive people if I do say so myself!
I have a real good picture of the boy and I skiing at Heavenly Valley at home on the fridge. He is 16 mo. old in that photo, and I don’t look nearly as fat as I really am. Good times!
Fagjunk Theology: Not just for sodomite propagandists anymore.
I have a picture of the SO and me together in my foyer at my parents’ house. My mother traditionally takes all the family pictures in front of the big antique mirror in the foyer.
We both look relaxed and wonderful and happy. It’s truly a beautiful picture of the both of us. I have it tacked to a corkboard in my apartment.
I have a very old photo of my mother and her twin brother, from when they were about three years old. He has her chin and cheeks smushed in one of his hands and is kissing her right on the mouth, and her eyes are wide open in total outrage.
I’ve described this picture before, but it is such a wonderful image that I’m happy to share it again:
My parents were married on June 26, 1954 (50 years next year, I guess we better start planning the party, eh?). I have a picture of them as they are leaving the wedding reception to go on their honeymoon. My dad looks for all the world like a young, very blond Paul Newman. He’s in a blue serge suit with a carnation in his lapel and white bucks on his feet. My mother looks like Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s - dark blue sleeveless dress, white gloves, white shoes - she looks stunning. The best part of the picture is the look they have on their faces. You can see all the hopes, and dreams, and promise, and plans for their lives together. You can see the love they feel for each other, and you can see the pure, unadulterated joy they feel at being with each other. Everyone in the world should, at one point in their lives, feel as happy as they look in that picture.
An uncle died around 17 years ago. My brother and I took a bunch of family photos dating from the 20’s to the present and made a video montage as a tribute to be played at my uncle’s memorial service.
We picked out a sequence of photographs to videotape in 4 second intervals (3 seemed to short; 5 too long). As we were sorting through the hundreds of photos, we discussed which song to dub in the background and decided on “The Way We Were” as performed live by Gladys Knight and the Pips. We included pictures of as many family members and friends as we possibly could. It took about 16 hours - picking through photos, arranging and flipping them with the music in the background umpteem times till we had the timing down, finally videotaping them and dubbing in the music. We also made a copy for each family expected at the memorial service.
The result was awesome. The first showing left the room in tears. Then we had to show it again and pause at almost every photo while people reminisced (who, what, where, when). The third showing brought tears again. That video montage has been shown at every family gathering, especially at wakes, since. In about 4 minutes, we can introduce our children and grandchildren to relatives they never had the opportunity to meet, and reacquaint ourselves with them as well. It’s truly my favorite collection of photographs of the people I love.
I should add that a semi-serious illness had me sexually inactive for about two weeks before the wedding. By the time I recovered, it was only three days till W Day, so hubby romantically suggested we wait til our wedding night to resume activity. One of the reasons he looked so happy was cuz he knew he was gonna get some!
