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Original poster

Old pictures make me sad

24 replies

Feela · 21/07/2022 23:01

Reading the dailypost and saw some pictures about summer in the past and this picture hit me for some reason yet I don't even know the couple.

It gave me a weird feeling of "we'll all be in the past one day", morbid I know.
They may be both be alive and well since it was taken in 1949 according to the article, maybe they're still together or have their own families now;
But it made me feel sad for some reason - the prospect that everything becomes a memory and life goes by too quickly.

Maybe I'm just having a weird moment haha!

Old pictures make me sad
OP posts:
AnneLovesGilbert · 21/07/2022 23:08

Aww it makes me happy. Those precious moments of joy are universal. A simple pleasure on a sunny day, the first snow, a shared joke. They echo through time as most people have felt the same way. It’s easy to think of people who came before as different to us but they weren’t really. I think that’s nice.

Sorry you’re feeling blue. In a way, it’s the fleeting nature of things that makes them extra special and worth cherishing.

Look after yourself.

RedHelenB · 21/07/2022 23:10

Why sad? They had a happy day, isn't that to be celebrated?

Original poster
Feela · 21/07/2022 23:10

@AnneLovesGilbert that's exactly it! I always see people from the past as "different" in terms of looks and styles and sometimes more formal; but seeing those two looking so young and even quite modern, just hurt.my heart a bit haha!

OP posts:
Original poster
Feela · 21/07/2022 23:11

I think I'm using the wrong word with sad - it's just a feeling of "I wonder what they're doing now" and "we're not young frowver"

OP posts:
embolass · 21/07/2022 23:11

Yeah totally get this 🙁 I often see pics in my local paper of my town, then and now feature. It shows people long since gone no doubt, standing where I’ve been this week, I often think where are they & what happened to them. Now just a photo but hopefully a memory to someone. Life so fleeting isn’t it 😢

Jumpjumpjumper · 21/07/2022 23:11

I understand, op. I'm the same. Even had CBT as these thoughts were consuming me. I couldn't enjoy "the moment" because all I could think was "this will be in the past" etc

Original poster
Feela · 21/07/2022 23:13

You both nailed it on the head! I go to Llandudno regularly and they remind me of my boyfriend and I. We love walks and are constantly on weekend trips away and it hit me that they were probably just like this with a sense of "young forever"

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Herbaceousborder · 21/07/2022 23:14

It's a very timeless photo capturing a special moment. It certainly is very evocative.

LadyVictoriaSponge · 21/07/2022 23:16

I get it, I feel the same watching old films and thinking they are all dead and buried now, I definitely have a morbid streak, I do try and suppress it as it’s quite depressing.

Awrite · 21/07/2022 23:16

What a handsome young fella.

Yes, I get it too op. The past was once new. That young couple had so much life ahead of them (hopefully). Now, everything has changed.

I do love old photos though.

embolass · 21/07/2022 23:19

I get comfort, if you can call it that, from the fact that nobody escapes, we are all going along the same path.

Original poster
Feela · 21/07/2022 23:22

@Herbaceousborder you've taught me a new word with "evocative" but a perfect word to describe it :)

@LadyVictoriaSponge yes same! Even as a child, if a celebrity was on TV, I'd always ask my mum "are they dead now?" Haha

@Awrite yes a very beautiful couple! That's why this one stood out from all the photos; it's just so natural!
Yes definitely; I'm going to guess they would be between 17 and early 20s; hopefully they both had a long, happy life

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Original poster
Feela · 21/07/2022 23:23

@embolass yes, age and death catches up to everyone in the end; we just have to hope it comes later rather than sooner;

Ahh sorry for my morbidity!

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embolass · 21/07/2022 23:29

No apology required feela reassuring in a way there are a few of us thinking like this

Thewigglyone · 21/07/2022 23:30

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

Original poster
Feela · 21/07/2022 23:33

@Thewigglyone that is one of the joys of photos - it brings backs memories that we cherish.
What a lovely photo to have of your dad and thank you for sharing the story <3 I hope you are doing okay!

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Nat6999 · 21/07/2022 23:46

My mum has a picture on her dressing table of my uncle who was shot down in WW2 while bombing Germany, on the corner it says To Mother from your loving son. He was 21, had hopes, dreams & aspirations like most 21 year olds. He had a girlfriend who to the end of her life carried his RAF wings around in her purse, even though she later met someone else, married & had children. He volunteered to join the RAF & worked as a rear gunner & then a wireless operator, his life expectancy was 6 weeks. I've read accounts from survivors of Bomber Command & the bravery of these young men to fly night after night knowing that they could be killed at any moment, they didn't even have a parachute attached to them. Can you imagine you are on a plane that is on fire & plummeting towards earth & you have to grab your parachute, clip it on, find the escape hatch in the dark, open it & jump knowing that you could be shot at & even if you do survive the chances are you will either be taken prisoner or you have to walk for weeks & evade capture to get home? He was beyond brave & he is my hero, I wish I could have known him.

Idontknowwhattothink · 21/07/2022 23:50

I feel you OP. I get very emotional about photos.

I have one child and began my battle with cancer shortly after her birth. I've won the fight now and she's about to turn four so just started to make longterm memories.

I often find myself looking through photos of us in a very morbid way imagining if I'd died, she would have no memories of and would be using the photographs to try to develop them.

It makes me so sad. I'm sick in all of them and the photos look nothing like 'me' with swollen face from steroids or stupid shiny wig hair.

Polecat07 · 21/07/2022 23:58

There is a music video that always gives me this feeling, I can actually tear up watching it and feel so silly because it's just archive footage of happy folk in Blackpool (I think?) living their lives on a summer day. It looks like the 50s, perhaps. All touching, human moments captured. It just hits me where I live.
Banfi 'Caroline', is the song.

LoReNewYork · 22/07/2022 00:02

Even had CBT as these thoughts were consuming me. I couldn't enjoy "the moment" because all I could think was "this will be in the past" etc

Did CBT help? I need to knock similar feelings on the head.

WarrenGRegulate · 22/07/2022 00:25

This reply has been withdrawn

This message has been withdrawn at the poster's request

JaneJeffer · 22/07/2022 00:29

I know where you're coming from. It's like when you see old photos and nobody remembers who the people in them are anymore.

WarrenGRegulate · 22/07/2022 00:29

Oops, not sure how that happened…I have reported myself to get it removed. Sorry OP 🙈 epic fail.

PS I love this picture, they looks so happy it makes me happy, but yes I can find old pictures melancholy. (I find vintage shops selling bits from house clearances particularly sad, it’s like someone’s life and once treasured possessions callously there for someone’s profit 😞)

FatOaf · 22/07/2022 00:29

Ever watched Shooting the Past, OP?

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