This site has been making the rounds for the last couple weeks but I’m just now sharing it with you. Sorry!
Anyway, it’s a comfort to know that awkward family photos are as American as apple pie and torture. I actually know exactly which picture of my family I would submit to this site … as soon as I can go back home, retrieve it, scan it and submit it. Let’s just say it involved using encyclopedias as props. At least, there are no funny pants in that one.
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Really, I didn’t think that photo was so bad . . . well, I don’t think I look so bad in it anyway. Maybe because I’m in the brainy looking kindergartener with glasses phase of life and not the on the cusp of entering those terrible preteen years phase of life. Although, I do agree the encyclopedia was a little odd–was it supposed to be like a bible? If so what does that say? The real question is, does anyone remember what letter it was . . . maybe j-k or l? I recall it not being very fat, so it couldn’t have been A or M . . . mennomom do you recall?
Browsing through the website, you have to admit it could have been so much worse . . . those pants . . . and what about the family with the sweaters or the grown guy in the Eyore suit?
We look good but the encyclopedias in an outdoor setting? That makes it just the slightest bit awkward.
Ah yes, family picture taking – such an ordeal, not helped by the fact that mennopop was, to put it kindly, a less-than-enthusiastic participant. I’m amazed at how good everyone looks on the early pictures considering the angst, sturm und drang it took to get everybody appropriately dressed and to the place – which could hardly have ever qualified as a proper photo studio. And the last formal one when we did venture into an Olen Mills “studio” in a strip mall in IC was quite disappointing. I got the feeling the photographer didn’t really know what she was doing. And then when I asked them to crop the picture for the Christmas card, even sending a template of exactly what I wanted, they said they couldn’t do it, so I sent them all back. So even now there are 50 some pictures of our family buried in a landfill somewhere in Texas or wherever, or forever returned to dust and ash. The encyclopedia picture was our one foray into bringing a family icon as a prop. It was supposed to represent our family’s love of reading. A bible would have looked too pious and self righteous, not to mention dishonest. Actually, the set of World Books from whence the volume came is still a permanent fixture in the dining room. Just the other day one of those cooking shows was on and the guy was doing a very la-dee-da entree – foie gras and truffles. Mennopop said “What’s a truffle?” I said, “I think it’s a kind of mushroom but I’m not sure.” So I promptly looked it up and confirmed my hunch. Apparently they are a rare delicacy for which one pays several grand a pound – in case anyone reading this is feeling flush and so inclined. I can only imagine how much the duck liver cost. All very obscenely extravagant. But I digress. I agree that the encyclopedia in an outdoor setting puts it in the awkward category – but then we never were a “doing things as a family out of doors” kind of family either.
Is mennopop ever an enthusiastic picture participant? I don’t remember the encylcopeida but I do remember the tube socks. With sandals I think.