What do you feel when you see a picture of yourself from decades ago, that you'd never seen before?

In the last week, thanks to the magic of digital technology, I’ve been getting a rush of pictures of me and my family that I’d never seen before.

This one is from the mid 60s It’s actually a picture of all three of us girls. It was sent by a sister a few weeks ago. I just played with it to show the likeness to my son’s oldest daughter.

This one from 1970 was sent to my sister by one of her best friends yesterday. I’m the tall one in glasses. I had that dictionary until it literally fell apart. It is thanks to that dictionary that I developed a strong interest in linguistics. I sadly put it in the recycle bin last year.

This one, from 1971 was also sent to me by my other sister yesterday. I was 13 and had glasses and braces. God I was a goofy mess! It’s me and my 2 sisters and our 4 cousins when they came to visit us from the Pacific Northwest. The cousin that sent it to my sister is the kid on the left, petting the black and white dog. I’m standing up, with my arm around my other cousin…who is now a multi millionaire thanks to the lottery!
The black and white dog is ours. His name was Mulligan. Or maybe Duffer. I don’t know who the other dog is. Our dogs just ran free in our country neighborhood. They never, ever crossed the creek into town, even though the creek was less than 50 yards from the back of the house.
Mulligan got hit by the school bus one day, when it backed up to make the turn around our dirt road cul de sac. My sister, Becky, the one also petting the black and white dog, screamed at the bus driver, calling her a ”SHIT!!!” It was a sad day.

This one from 1975 was sent to me by my former best friend (who turned out to be a crazy person so I had to drop her from my friend’s list.) I look strikingly like my youngest daughter in this picture.

This somehow found it’s way to me a year or two ago.. The year would be 1975 or 76. I’m in the smoking area at the school. Not sure who took the picture and I have no idea how it made its way to me!

It makes my heart hurt to see these. I can remember the feeling of being so young and strong. I had my whole life ahead of me. But things just didn’t go the way I planned for them to go. It’s bittersweet.