Take a Picture & Remember

Two weeks ago I spent one very harried day at the Young Library at U.C.L.A. I was digging around in the personal archive of Lawrence Clark Powell. He was a life-long friend of M.F.K. Fisher's. The two first met when she encouraged him to move to Dijon, France to continue his academic studies.

Once he arrived, the trio (M.F.K., her husband Al, and Larry) had a grand old time. They went to cafes, drank too much wine and coffee, read poetry at night, and went sightseeing. One of the boxes at the U.C.L.A. library that I searched through was a box of photos that captured some of these fun times: the three on the beach in Cros-de-Cagnes, France, sitting on the edge of the famous fountain in Dijon, and on numerous unnamed streets and avenues in France.

It made me think about my photos. Since I went digital they are all stored on my computer, a computer that has been on "life support" for quite a few weeks now. I look at the photos occasionally and am glad they aren't taking up space in our small home, but mostly they go unnoticed.

Flipping the pages of Larry's large and dusty memory book, I began to reconsider. I think I want my photos in albums. I want to be able to turn the pages and run my fingers across the shiny printed memories. I want there to be something left behind.




P.S. The photo above is of my grandmother, Frances Fawcett Bonner, on the beach in Ventura, California. It is one of my most favorite posessions.