Every Christmas and Easter my dad took line-up shots. You may remember these. For us it usually went like this...we would all get dressed for church and just as my mom had us all ready to go my dad would stop everything to take some photos. Now, as you can imagine, this was not the days of quick digital cameras. First daddy would load and wind the film into the camera. Then he would rummage through the drawer in the desk where he kept the flashbulbs. Yes, actual glass bulbs that screwed into the flash that snapped onto the camera in some way. Then the picture taking would start. Of course there had to be several poses and oftentimes the flashbulb wouldn't go off so there were retakes. All the while my mom is whispering (louder with each retake) that we were going to be late for church. And those knitted, tied-under-the chin hats were getting hot and itchy! There was no way to see the photos as you took them or delete the bad ones so when the pictures came back they often looked like this one...one of us has our eyes closed, someone's looking in the wrong direction or we all have that "flashbulb in the eyes" dazed looked. The line-up shots seemed like such an ordeal at the time...but how I enjoy looking at them now. Merry Christmas to Jan and Nancy and Lambie. How I wish we were together for another line-up shot this year!
