Are You In My Photo?

One of my coziest memories of family TV time was of the five of us gathering in the living room to watch “Get Smart,” a new show that surprised and delighted us all with its silly humor. We sometimes made watching it even more of an event by getting takeout Chinese food and eating it from TV trays. The days of family TV seem to be almost gone, now that cable offers hundreds of shows for every niche market, and TiVo allows us to watch shows at our own convenience. What shows did you watch as a family when growing up? What shows do you watch together now?

My husband recently posted two WWI photos from his mother’s archives–one showing his grandfather in a group of POWs in a German prison camp, and the other showing his grandfather’s brother in his Seaforth Highlanders unit. It seems remarkable to us that we can actually look at these images of times and places that seem as remote as an almost-forgotten dream. Do you have old family photos of grandparents, great-grandparents, or even more distant relatives? What kinds of scenes do they depict? Happy family gatherings, stern portraits, picnics or outings? Share some of the stories of these photos and of the people in them whose lives, losses, trials, loves, and triumphs helped create the family you have today.