In digging around in the archives at my parents' house, I found an old picture of my high school concert band taken in 1980, when I was a junior. That's me way in the back in the middle with a tuba. Yes, it was 1980s, but obviously the style back then was still heavily reliant on what we'd probably call now "70s kitsch": Note the ruffles everywhere, on the dresses and on the director's (right side) tux shirt. The ties are pretty wide, too, though it's hard to tell in the photo.
I knew mom had kept a bunch of school photos of my brother and I--regular school photos, band photos, football photos (my brother, not me). But she had a habit of storing them away where we couldn't find them. I guess she thought that if we kept them she'd never see them again. And she was probably right about that. But she also had the annoying habit of forgetting where she had put things, especially little-used items like old high school photos. (Yes, she did have some pictures of dad, my brother, and myself displayed strategically throughout the house. And yes, they were hopelessly out of date.) To be fair, though, she did it with her own photos, too.
We were just never the type of family to crack open the old photo albums and look through them all together. In the (very) early years, my dad had an 8-mm camera, and we would break out the projector for those and have "movie night." But then the camera messed up, the projector bulb blew, and that was the end of that. But dad did have several 35-mm still cameras, as well as a real 70(?) mm box camera, that he would take pictures and have made into slides. (Thank goodness he did that! I'm already on my third medium-size "albums, photos, and slides" packing box out at the house. If he'd had prints made, I would've had to have rented one of those storage pods, I'm afraid!) Occasionally, we'd drag the slide projector out to look at things, but not very often. We just liked to remember things in our heads. I suspect that my grandmother's views on mementos may have had an effect on mom. She probably thought of family photographs and the like as frivolousness. She was very much into the "denying ourselves and helping others" thing, and while there's certainly nothing wrong with that, I think occasionally she took it a bit too far in neglecting her family.
But here Alex and I are, neck deep in slides, photos, and 8-mm film rolls that we have no idea about the who, what, where, why of any of them. It may take years of research with relatives and friends to find out what all the unidentifiable ones are, if we identify them at all. I am planning on getting everything digitized, though, which will make things hopefully a little simpler. There are some very good photo organizing software programs out there. Despite the hassle of all these items, it is fun to see instances in your life that you'd forgotten or put aside. A trip down memory lane never hurt anyone, and by looking at the pics, you can often better discern where that memory lane is coming from. There are surprises--"My hair wasn't that long back then"--and lots of "Oh yeah! I remember this! We were..."
And so we come back to the photo of the band. Since I was a band geek in high school (I was a choir geek only at church), this photo means a lot to me. Lots of faces that I'd forgotten; some I remembered, but differently; some I'm absolutely elated to see, e.g., some of the hot (in 70s parlance, "foxy") flute players in the front row there that were hot majorettes in fall marching band. (Y'all go dream about your cheerleaders. I'll stick with the majorettes, thank you... they generally wear less!)
I've spent three or four hours the past few weeks puzzling out faces and attempting to attach names to them. The more I get, the more I remember. It's like some huge Kim's game. "I think her name was Natalie. Oh, and she had a friend, Paula... that's her right there... and they used to tease us tuba players. And one time at band camp"--spare me the "American Pie" references, please--"we got mad and decided to play a prank on them by..." So, even if I knew all these peoples' names, it takes forever just because of the flood of memories flowing back. And then Alex will chime in with someone's name he knows and it's off again.
It is tremendously gratifying to "see" these people again. If it weren't for my church choir and school band directors and all the friends I made in those organizations, I wouldn't be the musician, wouldn't be the person I am today. And, let's face it, high school is an amazing time in a person's life.
But perhaps the most shocking part about looking at this old picture is seeing that tuba player in the center in the back and trying to remember, "What was that guy like?"
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