Feeling the passing of time

Goodness me, 56 is no age at all! My son is 59, my daughter 55 and neither of them consider themselves even remotely old. My grandfather died at 56 in 1949 as a result of gas and shell shock from WW1, but even then people considered that he had died far too young. My DH and I are both over 80, and although we are clearly old(ish!) neither of us considers ourselves to be totally past it! My parents died early, my father at 28 (WW2), My mother at 68, my stepfather at 67. I was lucky, as an only child, to inherit all our family photos,which had been left to my mother. They are fascinating and give real insight to long ago. I do sometimes feel that I've been here for ever! I can remember the day the LATE King died in 1952 and the late Queens coronation + much more besides! To the incredulity of my 16 year grandson!!

56 is older. But not really old.

Fwiw, and I have written this elsewhere, I have spent some of this year pondering my age as well[early 60s].
With help from posters on here, I have worked through the issue. I have come to the conclusion, and looking around people I know, that now is not really the time to spend too much more time on this.

Amongst people I know, it is relatively rare for people to die before 75 at least.
I have decided for me, I will reassess my age when I hopefully reach 75.
And for now, I will carry on enjoying living!

I like looking at old photos. I enjoyed the time when I was young with small children. I've tried to make the most of all the times I've gone through and have happy memories. At 76 I enjoy each day. My DH died in his early 50s so I feel so grateful to be still here.

I love looking at old photos. I have inherited my mother's and grandmother's photos.

Like my mother, I have always written on the back of photographs. Usually the date, location, people in the photo and their ages if they were my children. It is so frustrating not knowing who, when or where a photo was taken.

I do need to cull them a bit though. I have two huge storage boxes full of photos. Mine are all in their original paper folders but the older ones are just loose. I am planning to get rid of ones with just scenery and random ones of elephants at the zoo (taken by my uncle about 70 years ago).

I have some fantastic Victorian family portraits and wedding photographs from the early twentieth century. I don't know who they are though. I don't think I will be able to bring myself to throw those away. It would be nice to donate them for their historical value but I don't know how I would go about this.

I am an only child and find it quite sad that I am now the only person who was witness to many of the photos - holidays with my parents etc.

Strangely, though I love photos, I don't have any on display in my house.

Since the advent of digital photos I have hardly any physical photos. I rarely take a photo these days.

Fancy that - I also had a time when I was pondering my age (66) and wondering how much time I had left. I think reaching pension age did it for me. I still feel quite depressed at the thought of dying, especially now that I have young grandchildren. My mother died from dementia and that is always in the back of my head. Her last years were awful and I would hate for my family to have to go through it.

I recently looked through my wedding album at my GD request. It made me decide if we both get to our 50 wedding anniversary which is soon I don't want a big party.
I inherited both my mother's and GM's photos and like looking at the old ones which my mum luckily named. We have two hat boxes full for DH but my MIL has written things like my gran,not her name. Some are way back in Victorian times.
I have no photos of my paternal grandparents except my parents wedding. We had someone come along like Primrose and say they would get sorted and they never did they meant nothing to his wife and she burned them.
I do have one very special one of my great grandmotherx3 and one of my own grandfathers somewhere in France during WW1 all the men from different regiments and towns in our county are on it with a board saying",Gathering of the clans".

As an only child, I inherited boxes of my parents' black and white photos, about 50% of them of people I couldn't name. I invited my cousin for a long weekend and we spread out the photos all over the livingroom floor and went through them identifying people and labelling them. We ended up with just a handful we couldn't name.

I don't know if my children will be interested. They were only small when my Dad died and can barely remember him, but teenagers when Mum died .... but anyway, the photos will be there for them to do what they want with them.

When my mum died I found a family photo in her flat that I’d never seen before. Thankfully there was one family member who was still alive and she named most of the people for me. Otherwise I would never have known that the tubby guy with the huge moustache who looked as if he’d stepped out of the pages of Three Men in a Boat was called Harry Fido. It’s always important to write the name of people in pencil and not biro as it’s less damaging.

It recently occurred to me that I I'll soon be the age my Gran was when she became a Gran -59 She looks much older than I do

I haven't any photos of my paternal grandparents, plenty of my maternal side and some stepfather ones, going back to circa 1853! My parents had a war time wedding on Salisbury Plain in 1941, and apart from my maternal grandmother,nobody from either family went. There were reasons, but it's all a long time ago now and didn't end well in any respect. However, with the advent of the internet and after the death of my mother I have managed to get in touch with a member of my paternal family, and he has very kindly sent me some photos of the family. Strange feeling, looking at people who have a slight look of you!

foxie I could have written that - or, more precisely, I wish I had! I too am happier now than in younger days, when there was a lot of strife, much grief and some stressful times.

I love looking through photo albums. I have loads as does my mother , she also wrote on the back of photos with names , dates and places . I now do as well . I have lots of photos in frames around the house . Tbh I prefer photos over ornaments and nik naks .
About once a year I have a blitz on my phone and upload them to a site like Snapfish and order prints which I put in photo albums. I also upload the photos onto my desktop incase I lose my phone .
As for the passing of time . I don’t really think about it .

I’m 78. I have boxes of family photos which I treasure and which I love to look at and remember all the relatives and the times we had. I’m not sad, just grateful to have known such wonderful people.

Looking at a photo of my paternal grandfather in his youth I was taken aback as my 34 year old son is the image of him.

My dad died at 61 so no photos of him at my age-72, but mum lived to 83 and stayed smart and quite trendy till the end. But looking at my grandparents pics they do look old fashioned, but I suppose fashions have changed a lot from their 70s.
I agree with writing on old family photos for the benefit of our children/grandchildren. When mum died I inherited boxes of photos and many were doubles of those I had ie.annual school ones So I decided to make up 4 albums dating way back to the 1960-70s
I gave my 4AC one each as a Xmas present. When they opened the gift there were tears all round. Well worth the effort.

I have lots of photos in albums and our grandchildren love looking through them when they visit. Not all of them have who they are written on them but I’m trying to do this as I remember my late dad telling me that I should say who they are and when they were taken. I don’t put photos of scenery alone in the albums as I don’t think they will be of much interest to anyone else.

I don’t think the younger generation bother with getting photos printed off, it’s a pity as who knows what technology will be like in the future, will they be able to see their photos?

As someone who spends quite a lot of my free time on family history research, I love looking at old photos. They help me to connect with the people I am researching and I feel it is important to think, from time to time, about our family forbears without whom we would not be here today. I do find it sad when I come across family members who have left no trace of their lives and I would certainly like to think that my descendents will look at photos of me in 100 years' time. Doubtless my grandchildren will laugh at my "old fashioned" clothes and face untouched by cosmetic surgery! Perhaps social media and digital photography will have a big influence on how we are remembered. Certainly, in the last 100 years we've gone from having just one or two family portrait photos taken on a special occasion to thousands of digital family photos which will perhaps be floating around in "the cloud" forever!

I am someone who is perhaps not as interested in old family photos as others.
My DH was given some photos of his great grandparents, around 1890, in the Shepherds Bush area.
Somehow, I cant quite emotionally connect. Maybe because they are not my own personal relatives?
Also, everyone back then seemed to wear the same clothes as everyone else! I am perhaps being a bit silly.

I have never looked at old photos even when I was a teenager. My kids look at them I do not. However please remember that a 56-year-old, would have been very different even 20 years ago to now. Age is social construction and it changes in time, between cultures and throughout history. An aging population means 56 is fairly young, advances in science and education means we are able to stay healthier and know how to avoid thing that age us and slow us down, like smoking, fatty foods and lack of excerise . Attitudes have changed and so have expectations 56 isnt consider old by most . Look forward not backward.

I worry because my mum and her birth mum both died at 68 and I keep counting how far away it is, not far enough. I am also a diabetic for 50 years and someone told me I had reached the end now for a diabetic. Really worries me as still have daughters living with me as I need care.
Mum always dressed really nicely and would go everywhere on her bike and was really active til Dad died

My Dad died of a heart attack at 57...I am 57 this year and like you find it upsetting and disconcerting x

When my grandmother died she left me the contents of her house and one of the saddest things was going though her personal things - including a huge box of old photos. Most of them were the old sepia tint. Some of them had the names and dates on the back. Others I was able to identify with the help of my aunts. However about 50% of them must have been my grandfathers family and are strangers to me.

My children have told me I'm being silly but you can't help it can be you.
Hope you will have a lovely year and bypass it

How sad Primrose. I hope that person gets their just deserts

DH and I were on holiday abroad once and waiting at a bus stop after a day on a beach. A couple of dozen English speaking school boys arrived at the stop and then came the bus at which point one of the boys told the others to stand to one side and 'let the old people on first' - we both looked round and then realised it was us he was talking about, bit of a wake up call!

How awful Primrose! What a way to behave. Wishing you well xx