I bought your vacation pictures at Goodwill for .99 cents.
It’s a little strange. I don’t know if these are the pictures you didn’t want, or the pictures you did want. Are you wondering where they are? Has it hit you yet that you accidentally mixed them in with a donation? Or was someone else cleaning out your things and these just got lost in the shuffle?
You flew Maya Island Air, so you were somewhere in the
Are you friends with the other couple? Or did you happen to be sharing space in a pre-determined trip destination. Was it eco-tourism? Was it one in many trips? Or a once-in-a-lifetime adventure? Where did you come from?
Are those monkeys in that one shot? I think I see prehensile tails, but there are no repeat shots so I don’t know.
Was that the biggest moth you had ever seen? Is that why it got a spotlight next to a plastic condiment cup filled with some kind of relish?
Did you dive for that conch you’re smashing with a meat tenderizer on your own, or did you buy it from that shack in the photos?
Did all of your smiles look so strained? Somehow just a bit uncomfortable.
I find the older couple much more fascinating. I’m assuming they’re a couple. Maybe the other two are their kids, or maybe just friends. Or maybe complete strangers.
Who knows what their relationship is.
But I could not resist picking up the package. What on earth would possess the workers at Goodwill to actually put a price on it and sell it off the shelf? Just because they knew someone would buy it?
I’ve found other photos at yard sales and such. One was tucked into a Bible. Another I believe was in a book and had an accompanying letter. Once my husband found a photo of the cast of a play from probably the late 1800s, early 1900. One of the players was in black face. Each is a fascinating piece of history that somehow got lost in the shuffle.
Sometimes there are boxes of old photographs at yard sales. I would buy all of them if I could. Personal history always seems to get lost. People know their grandparents had grandparents, but who they were and how they spent their days is a bit of a mystery. My brother has always been the self appointed keeper of history in my family. It’s a role I’m glad he has taken on. He’s found out things I might never have even attempted to learn. But a few death announcements and photos still leaves some pretty big holes.
Not that a few vacation photos of time in Guatamala is going to reveal all of the mysteries of these people to future generations, but it would be an interesting clue into the adventurous nature of these people.
Because anyone willing to tenderize a conch by the light of a headlamp while vacationing in a far away place is someone with more stories to tell.
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