In the days before Facebook and cell-phone cameras

This is what First Day of School photos looked like in 1978 for my sister, Susan, and my brothers, from the left, Doug, Scott, and me. I would have been 11 and starting sixth grade, I think. So Scott was 10 and starting fifth grade, Doug would have been 8 and starting third grade, and Susan would have been 5 and starting first grade. The picture was taken on the northeast corner of the house in which we grew up. We were pretty practical in the white T-shirts and blue jeans, essentially our uniform in grade school.

One of the cool things on Facebook every year are all of the First Day of School photos posted by many of my friends. This practice has been in place on social media long enough to not be a new thing anymore. And taking photos on the first day of school is definitely not a new thing. It’s just that the photos used to get put away in albums and boxes never to be seen again until your mom or an aunt or someone in the family — in this case one of my aunts — started going through those old boxes and getting rid of 50 years worth of accumulated mementos.

That’s how I came into possession of these photos — a very small sampling from the box I received.

In this group of photos, my favorite is the one of Doug and Susan at what would have been a birthday party for him. The look on her face is classic. I also like the group photo of the four of us. I think we were getting ready to hit the road as a country western gospel act even though arguably the best singer in the group may not have started singing yet in 1974 when this photo was taken. It would have been a challenge for her to sing with her fingers in her mouth.