"If today was Christmas Eve..."

I'd been posting these family photos to Facebook where they seem to land like a snowflake on an outstretched tongue.  Something about social media has gotten to me, in a bad way: The fleeting, scrolling, trending nature of everything, a post like a glare off a mirror to elicit a smile or provoke a thought then fades into the feed never to be revisited.  Here I can come back and remember.

The Huron River outside Hamburg, MI

From the vaults of Frederick H. Tank, Sr. via my father, F.H.Tank, Jr. and his preservation of these negatives:  Christmas & Days Past.

Little Freddy seems fairly pleased with the globe Santa left for him.

Grandma didn't much enjoy having her picture made by the time she and Grandpa Tank moved up to Traverse City in the '80s, so this is a rare, placid shot of her.  She loved to hang the tinsel though!

Helen (Jordan) Tank

Uncle Larry

Freddy & Larry circa 1948

My dad and his dad circa 1938.

My grandpa had a fine eye for composition and could nail an exposure. Back in the day, this took practice, persistence & patience, all of which he had.  This shot of my dad and my uncle is one of my favorites--Rockwellian and classically American--taken just after World War II when no doubt the future looked very exciting, indeed!