I have been hard at work on a project for several weeks now–establishing a timeline of my grandparents’ lives based on my Grandma Dorothy’s journal. I finished transcribing the journal while I was in California this summer, and then began illustrating it with photos from their lives–which has also meant trying to establish when the various photos were taken.  My dad and I had a chuckle when we discovered that you could often date the photos by the cars in them–the Browns and Gortons did love their cars! My dad’s age is also a good indicator–Baby Jim in the photos in Phoenix or Redlands, a toddler in California, a little older back in Phoenix, a little older in Montana, then back to California. And then there is my grandmother’s writing on the backs of the photos–even a name and a date can place the photo so perfectly in the story.

I suppose that one of the driving factors in this project is the fact that I never knew my Grandpa Brown, who passed away a decade before I was born.  But thanks to this project, I feel like I am getting to know him more and more.

I love this photo of him with his basketball team when he was a senior in high school in Circle, Montana. I can’t get over how much my Uncle Jeff looked like him.

And then I look at this photo from my Grandma Dorothy’s senior yearbook (1936), which I found online–and realize that I take after her more and more every day.

Sweet treasures from the past.  Can’t wait to share more of my discoveries.