The Absent Uncle: Class pictures

We have a picture frame shaped like a school bus with 12 windows in it hanging just off our kitchen wall. A lot of you probably have a similar one hanging on your walls someplace in your house.

Those 12 windows contain the class picture taken of our son for every grade in his educational career. Now that he is 32 years old, the differences in the 12 pictures are not as pronounced as his current appearance as compared to his last picture in his senior year.

When I see that school bus frame with those pictures, it brings back lots of memories. Not just the change in appearance; the round baby face maturing, the various ever-changing hair style/length from year to year, or the clothes choices (at first made mostly by his mother, but over the years he took the lead on what he was going to wear for “picture day”).   

But really what strikes me the most when looking at the progression is the memories that flood back from some of the details. Smiles with obvious dimples that appear and disappear from year to year; seeing some of his favorite shirts and remembering overhearing the debates between his mom and he over wearing that shirt that was not dressy enough for the occasion (in her estimation!) and his ultimate decision to wear what he wanted as he got older. 

And the hair! Short, long, shaggy, styled, and seemingly ever-changing in keeping with the fads of the current day. 

I do seem to remember some resistance to this “mom insisted” yearly ritual. We had to review the various poses and shots to determine, which would be memorialized with the actual package purchased for dissemination to the extended family, and of course, to become part of that school bus picture frame.  

That frame will always hang prominently on our wall reminding us of those great times raising him. So many memories. Great memories.