“You should’ve seen it in color” – Picture 1

One of my favorite country songs right now is called “In Color” by Jamey Johnson. (I highly recommend downloading/buying it if you like country.)  In the song, Jamey sings, “A picture’s worth a thousand words, but you can’t see what those shades of gray keep covered. You should’ve seen it in color.” He goes on to describe black and white photos of a man’s life and how many things about that moment in time you can’t tell just by looking at the picture.

I’ve been blessed with a wonderful Grandma that documented every stage of my life from birth to marriage with ornate photo albums, so I decided to pull out 10 of  the pictures and share behind the scenes details. I’m inviting you into some of the most special moments of my life. Some are happy, some are sad, but they’re all mine and I wouldn’t trade them for anything. Except maybe a bulldog puppy…KIDDING obviously!!

Picture 1

The obvious:
This is a picture of me and my Great Grandma Patrick (my Grandma’s mother) in 1985.

What you can’t see:
It is Easter and we are at my Great Grandmother and Grandfather’s house. There is big band music playing in the background on a large cabinet style record player that Great Grandma Patrick loved. While the music played, she would often dance with me, teaching me the fox trot and other popular dances from her youth. She also told me stories about entering dance competitions where she had to dance for more than 24 hours straight.

My Great Grandfather and the rest of the men from my family are in the sitting room watching television and my Great Grandfather is almost assuredly smoking a pipe, the smell of which I still find comforting.

How this picture makes me feel:
Happy, sad, and hungry for chocolate. Shortly after this photo was taken (a couple of years) I learned that Great Grandma always had chocolate turtles on her coffee table and more importantly that she would never tell me I couldn’t have another. I attribute my great love for dancing to her passion for teaching me her favorite moves. I’m also a little sad because she developed Alzheimer’s when I was in grade school. Whenever I visited her after that, she would repeat “You know what they tell me, Adrienne? Everybody’s taller than you Grandma!” She was around 4 feet 8 inches to my freakishly tall 5th grade 5 feet 5 inches. I’m so blessed to have known her so well.

*Title of the post is a line from “In Color” by Jamey Johnson. Buy it here!