Album

Whenever we visit my grandpa's house, I always look at the old photo albums. I've been doing it since I was eleven (I'm 15 now). I always find them strangely intriguing. My whole family history, contained within these archives. There are wedding albums, vacation albums, holiday albums, all kinds of albums. I especially like seeing what my aunts and uncles looked like before I was born.

My favorite ones, however, are the ones that date back even further. Like the ones that contain my grandpa's old army photos and the ones from when he was a kid. I have always been a history buff. But my favorite one of all is also the oldest. This one has pictures from the 1870s all the way up till the 1890s. In every photo, the subject is dressed in his or her sunday best. The subject is almost always alone. He or she is always sitting. One of them, the teenage girl with the missing arm, I think I might be starting to develope a little crush on (which is kind of screwed up considering she may very well be my great great aunt or something).

Back in the 19th century I guess you weren't allowed to smile for photos. They all have this blank look on their face. All the makeup doesn't help either, makes them look rather pale.

Another thing I noticed: as far as I can tell, no subject ever appears twice in the album.