Mystery Men

Unknown relatives?

I love wandering through flea markets. Not crappy ones with shit from my nephews and nieces childhood, but the good ones with all the really old stuff, from my childhood. All the history laid out there is fascinating. One thing that I love, yet find terribly sad, are the old snapshots and photos you can find there. Some go back a hundred years or more. I always wonder, who are these people in the snapshots and why didn't their families care enough to keep them?

Over the last few years I have been scanning photos from my mom and dad's collection. They probably have a thousand or more photos of our family history. At this time I am trying to ramp it up and scan more every time I go out to visit Mom. Last week I opened up the top drawer of my grandfather's old desk and found some gems. A photo of my great grandfather and a letter from relatives in England, sent to my grandfather's family in Philadelphia. The letter had the original envelope with it. I scanned it all. This week I found a cigar box full of photos. Old photos of my mom and dad's wedding day. Mom and her wedding party posing in front of my grandparent's house, in the snow. The day they got married Chicago had a blizzard. It was during World War Two and there was no limo for them, so they had to walk two blocks through deep snow to get to the church. I believe my dad lived across the street from the church, his walk was minimal. Besides the photos of the wedding party, there were others of people who I recognized easily. In fact some photos had it written on the back who was in the photo. A few did not, including the one at the top of this post. Two good looking young men who do not resemble anybody I know of in my family. Why is that photo in the cigar box? What side of the family do they belong to? Is that where I got my good looks?  I need to know.