One of the things that I think is interesting about pictures is how they can help you to sustain rather mundane details of a particular day over the course of time. It’s not always the case of course, but it always surprises me when I go through my childhood photos and can recount precise details of a day that happened 25 years ago that would probably have been forgotten if their hadn’t been a picture to affix that memory to.

This particular picture has that quality…

This picture was taken in Ohio when I was three years old. It was my Uncle Gene’s birthday… I’m not sure which one, probably 80th, and the extended family all went to Ohio to throw him a party. It was the first of three times I visited this particular branch of my mother’s family.

I remember being loaded into my father’s van in the middle of the night, stopping at a McDonalds for breakfast somewhere in the middle of 11 hour trip and waking up in Ohio.

I remember following my cousin Ricky who was probably somewhere in his early teens around like a shadow.

I remember being puzzled as to why these people who my mom referred to as my aunt and cousins seemed to show up about 10 minutes after we did anywhere and asked her, “Why do they keep following us?”

In particular, I remember that in this photo I really had to pee and the adults on the other side of that table were just not getting what I was trying to communicate. They snapped my photo, they told me the cake was for later and I was just stuck gesticulating wildly trying to get their attention for someone to help me find a bathroom!