The People In The Box

THE PEOPLE IN THE BOX
The poem which I will post below, really struck me. I know it is one of the reasons that I created this blog, and why I try to fill in some of the details of their lives. At some point, I hope to have enough notes in my Genealogy files to make reading a little more interesting. I recently found 5
tiny pictures in very old frames from around the mid 1800's. It's a Barnes family but only 3 of the children are labeled, and I haven't found how they are related yet. They need to get out of the box, they were saved for a least 150 years and should be remembered. I'm gonna bet here that they are cousins from up on Barnes Hill Rd in Burlington. After the holidays, I'll contact a distant cousin who is a Burlington Historian. He gave a lot of bits and pieces last March.
I've posted above a picture from the Larrabee/Balfour box that has intrigued me for years. I think it may be a picture of my Nana Larrabee's side of the family. The Balfours shall be the BRICK WALL of our family tree!! I have the oral history leads, but not a bit of written evidence. I also can't find any record of Lillian and Lester's marriage yet. I did get a little further back last week when I found that my Uncle Galen and Uncle Lester Putnam were born in Boston Ma. My Uncle Lester must not have liked his name because I only knew him as Uncle Frank. I need to get him out my box as only I know that's him standing by his milk wagon.
I was thinking now I may not be left in the box, I have both daughters deeply involved in scrap booking and I don't think I ended up as a scrap on the floor.
Enough here's the poem:

Strangers in the Box

Come look with me inside this drawer,
In this box I’ve often seen,
At the pictures, black and white,
Faces proud, still, serene.

I wish I knew the people
These strangers in the box,
Their names and all their memories
Are lost among my socks.

I wonder what their lives were like.
How did they spend their days?
What about their special times?
I’ll never know their ways.

If only someone had taken time
To tell who, what, where, when,
These faces of my heritage
Would come to life again.

Could this become the fate
Of pictures we take today?
The faces and the memories
Someday to be tossed away?

Make time to save your pictures,
Seize the opportunity when it knocks,
Or someday you and yours could be
The strangers in the box.

By Pam Harazim East Hampton, Conn.

And where did I find the poem, you might ask. Why, on the Google Group for Genealogy in the Azores of course! It's my latest find and the people there are quite helpful.

Muito Boas Festas e Feliz Ano Novo.