Photos | 100 Words

Happy Valentine’s Day

February 8th, 2025
Mollie T. Cox

Friends Gary and Lois on their wedding day (1975)

I love wedding photos. I love them enough to host Valentine’s Day “wedding photo” parties—bring your wedding photos and the funny, embarrassing and tender stories that accompany them.

Of all my friends’ wedding photos that I’ve seen, the one above is my favorite. Lois and Gary wed a couple of years after meeting and flirting at a work Christmas party. Between those events, a boss caught them kissing in an elevator. “Perhaps you could find a better place,” he suggested.

I met the couple twenty-five years after this photo was taken. Of all the wedding photos I have seen, none have helped me understand a couple’s history like this casual black and white snapshot. Lois and Gary’s love story resonated after I saw their youthful selves.

I easily visualized the woman above sitting alone until the friendly, happy guy above approached and proceeded to entertain her the rest of the evening. I saw her hopes crushed when she learned the obstacles to their marriage.

I see the love and chemistry that they still share today.

May you enjoy reminiscing with your photos this Valentines Day.

Photos, Relationships

Staying in Touch (Reprise)

February 1st, 2025
Mollie T. Cox

During Covid-19, my husband and I needed ways to connect with members of our isolated church family that did not involve physical contact. When we were physically apart due to travel, I sent tourist postcards. Those wouldn’t work this time.

While my sons were at college, Pictures of the Day (POTD) kept our immediate family connected. (See here.) Why not expand the POTD to our church family?

Printing and sending photos were time-consuming, but more interesting than writing letters when there was little news to share.

The first photos I sent during Covid-19 were of the woodpeckers, jays, cardinals, and chickadees that visited the feeder on my deck.

When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs.
Ansel Adams

I appreciated my backyard more because of the response I received. I saw my surroundings through the lens of those who didn’t have the view I did.

I also gained a permanent communication tool. Eventually photos were mailed to extended family. Five years later, my ninety-year-old aunt eagerly awaits the next batch.

How did you stay in touch during Covid-19?

Family, Photos

The Blessing of Photography

August 19th, 2023
Mollie T. Cox

August 19th is World Photography Day. When I first heard about World Photography Day, I thought it would be appropriate to celebrate by taking photographs. But I already take too many.

I thought I should make a special effort to open my albums and look at my photographs. But I regularly peruse my albums.

I decided to do what I am still learning to do—especially since one uncle’s funeral. Be grateful for photographs.

Be grateful for the memories I have recorded.

Never go camping without your teddy bear .(May 1990)

Be grateful to my ancestors for taking photographs at a time when photography was not common but rather a luxury.

My father, left, and his brothers in the mid-1930s. I love their poses because they stood this way as adults. Children don’t change. See here.

The photos may be blurry and dark, but they tell me things my father and uncles never did, and they remind me of what they did tell.

Thank you, Photographer, whoever you were.

God bless the photographers and those who cherish those photographs.

Memories, Parenting, Photos

Picture of the Day

January 2nd, 2022
Mollie T. Cox

Are you considering new habits for the New Year? Along the way, I learned that regular habits sometimes—well, usually—disintegrated into irregular ones. I also learned that irregular habits can still be valuable.

When my middle son went to college, his younger brother urged him to take a Picture of the Day, POTD, and email it to the family. I thought POTD was our family’s acronym, not commonly used for Poll of the Day and, more accurately, Photo of the Day.

My middle son daily emailed a POTD the first two weeks, and then sporadically the rest of his college years.

My youngest took POTD seriously his freshman year. POTDs dropped off during his sophomore year. Junior year was more accurately Picture of the Week—although still labeled POTD. Senior year became Picture of the Month.

Fifteen years later, my husband and I still have the thrill of receiving emails and texts with POTD in the subject line. The frequency and regularity have decreased, but the habit continues, keeping our family connected—and sometimes amused—over hundreds of miles.

Has an irregular habit benefited you? Perhaps, kept you connected?

Homeschooling, Memories, Parenting, Photos

Clutter? Photos Help

May 9th, 2021
Mollie T. Cox

An experienced mom had learned how to fight the clutter battle, and I took her “take a photo” advice to heart.

My boys built Usborne Cut-Out models of a Viking town, Roman villa, Roman amphitheater, multiple castles, knights’ masks and more. They enjoyed their results.

However, you can’t keep that stuff around. When the models had served their purpose and then hung around a bit longer, I took a photo and we moved on.

The advice prevented arguments and showed respect for the boy’s efforts. Not only did I have years of clean surface areas, nineteen years later, I have reminders of projects that would have crumbled and been tossed by now.

This system works today. My sentimental family members are more likely to toss something if they take a photo before parting.

Do you have a method for making it easier to part with sentimental items?