Almost everything my family owned was lost in a fire on Christmas Eve of 1973. A few family photos survived (singed around the edges) but there are almost no photos of me and my brothers when we were young. I've only seen 3 or 4 photos of myself before the age of 10.
My grandmother died in Michigan two weeks ago. After my mother flew up to help her sister with the funeral arrangements they decided to create a photo memorial of their mother. Digging through boxes of old family photos they unearthed a few snapshots of my family and my cousins. Today my mother mailed me copies of them and it was like opening a time capsule. I haven't seen a photo of my youngest brother at that age in almost 40 years.
Judging by ages, hair length and missing teeth, I'd date the top photos to Christmas of 1969. The bottom one is probably the summer of 1969.
My Uncle Mike died in 2004 at age 47. He was a great guy and I miss him a lot. The same goes for my grandparents and uncles who have all died within the past 5 years. I have nothing but aunts and cousins left outside of my immediate family. That makes me sad, but I have a lot of happy memories.
