Betsy's scrapbooks

My cousin, Betsy, is a much better scrapbooker than I will ever be. (It should also be noted that she is a much better letter writer than I have ever been. I have a lovely, handwritten 2-page letter from her that has been in my "Oh, I should answer this" pile for years now. Right on top of things, aren't I?)

For the record, I should mention that Betsy has been Elizabeth for some time now, but I still think of her as Betsy.

Over the past couple of years she has taken old pictures of our grandparents and great-grandparents and made lovely on-line scrapbook pages for them. Using layouts, some that she creates herself and some that she gets from other scrapbookers, she frames the pictures and then adds her own memories or a quote or a discription of what the picture is all about, like her mother's first car, or a bit of family history like this picture of my grandparents, which made me laugh.

I love looking at old family photos, searching for resemblances, looking at the clothes. Family pictures are history made personal. I used to think that my Dad looked like his mother, but as I look at the pictures, I see more of his father in Daddy.

When my grandparents downsized before they moved out of the house they'd been in for about half a century into a little two-bedroom apartment (that was closer to town and easier to maintain) Gram would ask me what I wanted. I'd point to something, a picture, a side table, whatever, and was always told that Betsy had asked for it first.

This wasn't unreasonable; Betsy lived much closer and saw our grandparents more often that I, who was a thousand miles away, did. The only picture I have is this one, because Betsy copied it and sent it to me, had it gone the other way, I would have spent decades intending to copy and send it to her.

I love this picture because one doesn't often get to see one's grandmother looking like a glamour girl, but check out the bobbed hair*, the great shoes, and Gram's gams. If you look closely, you can even tell that she's wearing silk hose because nylons just don't have the same look. And that's genuine 1930 Alabama in the background. Eat your heart out, Barbara Stanwyck.

Of course, of all the pictures in the collection, the one that really catches my eye is the one of my grandparents as I knew them.

Betsy also has pictures of her adorable daughter, so I can see how my first-cousin-once-removed looks like her mother and grandmother. She even has Betsy's red hair, a family trait. Interestingly, She also looks like my red-haired friend, McCall. Maybe if we count back far enough, McCall and I are related...

I hope that over time, Betsy will scrapbook all the pictures because then we'll both have them. And I won't feel guilty about not sending her copies.

*I got my hair cut the other day and it looks remarklably like that picture right now.