I got an email with the subject line: National Geographic Best Pictures. I don’t know if that’s true or not and I’ve seen some of these floating around the internet for a while. I picked out some that nudged my imagination into story mode.

I guess I wanted to know what was going on – is the turtle in distress? Is it just merrily swimming? Is it running away from something? What’s the story behind this expression?

Same here – lots of questions.  Did that little inch worm eat that whole leaf?  If so, is it going back for more? is it disappointed to get to the leaf only to find that another bug beat it to the meal and didn’t leave much?

I assume this is a fox that’s diving into the snow.  But could it be half a fox? If so, where’s the other half and what happened to it?

This one just lends itself to a humorous caption as does the next one.

It seems that we just can’t help but attach an anthropomorphic (human characteristics attributed to animals or other nonliving things) meaning thus turning these animal photos into some human story.

Is this a big fish with a little fish boa?  What’s going on here?

And this beautiful optical illusion where the shadows seem more real than the objects.  There’s a great premise for a story here.

Looking through a box of old family photos with a friend the other night opened a flood gate of stories about my younger years.

This picture of my ’50 Chevy invoked lots of memories!  The car was 17 years old in 1967 when I bought it for $300 from the original owner in Saugerties, N.Y.  It had 1700 miles on it  - that averaged 100 miles a year.  The only thing wrong with it was there was a hole in the muffler so my father fixed it with an orange juice can (the metal kind) and wire from a hanger.

I drove out of Woodstock, NY in 1969 in this car and headed West to the wide open spaces of Colorado.  With 4 “new” retread tires for seven dollars apiece, we were good to go.

We weren’t in a rush and it’s a good thing because top speed, going downhill was around 60 miles an hour. Most of the time we cruised along at 50, watching cars whizz by.  Gas averaged about 25 cents a gallon and Motel 6 actually cost six bucks a night. OK, the rooms weren’t first class but with all this economy we were able to travel the 1600+ miles on the $100 we had in our pockets and arrive at a friends house with enough to go out for dinner that night.

People of all ages enjoy hearing about the “old days” either because it stirs up their own memories or because they learn a bit of history.  I had lots more adventures with the ’50 Chevy including getting Canadian plates on it and finally selling it when the engine died.  But the clock still worked!

Next time you open a box of old photos, have someone handy so you have an audience for all the stories that will jump out with the pictures.