52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 2: Favorite Photo

It’s Week 2 of the 52 Ancestors in 2023 challenge and the prompt is “Favorite Photo”. It’s always hard for me to choose a favorite anything, but especially a favorite photo. There are so many good ones to choose from! So instead of a favorite photo, I am choosing one that I like a lot.

This is a photo of my mother on a trip she and my father took a few months after they married. Obviously it isn’t a perfect picture. The colors are faded and the photo is blurry. I can hardly make out my mother’s face, and this is after editing. I can see that it was a windy day from the movement of the skirt. But what makes this photo special is the story behind it.

I’m not sure where my mother took the film to get it developed. I don’t know if she could just drop it off at the corner drug store or if she had to take it to a special photo shop. What I do know is that she had to go back multiple times to get the photo printed. The first time she went in, she excitedly opened the pack of photos. She couldn't wait to relive the special moments of the trip. Imagine her surprise—and irritation—when she realized one photo had not been printed. She went back to point out their mistake, and that’s when things got really interesting. It turned out that not printing the photo was not an oversight! The person she talked to explained that they would not print the photo because it was obscene! She was very unhappy. She did eventually get them to print the photo, but I think it took three visits to the shop. This is a great example of how things change through the generations!