A Not So Random Photo and Family Forensics

National Siblings Day was a few days ago on April 10. I looked for a picture of my siblings and me to post on Facebook for the occasion, and I came across this one.

I’d forgotten this photo, though it is on the CD that my father had made of old family pictures several years ago, so I know I’ve seen it many times. But I wondered, when was this photograph taken?

The photograph was obviously taken in the springtime. I recognize the flowering tree behind us. It was a flowering peach—lovely when it bloomed, and nasty in the summer when the wasps ate the fruit and threatened anyone who came up the sidewalk to our front door.

And the picture was clearly taken on a holiday, because my mother wears a corsage. My father usually bought her a corsage on Mother’s Day, but sometimes he bought her one on Easter as well.

I do not know which of these spring holidays it was. Peach trees can blossom anytime in the spring, and I don’t recall when our tree typically bloomed. I am in a short-sleeved dress, but my sister wears a winter coat. Which of us was dressed more appropriately for the weather? I do not recall.

Moreover, springtime weather in Richland—as in many places—was notoriously unpredictable. I recall several years when it was warmer on New Year’s Day than on Easter. The bright sunshine of this photograph could well have masked cool temperatures. Or maybe my sister was cold that day, or perhaps Mother made her wear a coat and gave up trying to make me do anything.

I also cannot be certain which year it was. My memory puts it in 1969 or 1970. I remember posing for the picture, because I remember my sister insisting the family Siamese cat be in it, though the cat was not pleased with the attention.

I typically date old family pictures by which glasses I wear, how my hair is styled, and my height relative to my siblings and my parents. Even with these clues, I needed more forensic evidence to date the photo.

In the spring of 1969, I turned thirteen and I was about to graduate from the 8th grade. So I found a picture of me on my 8th grade graduation. I still wore blue glasses frames and had bangs then. Ergo, the picture of my mother, siblings, and me was taken in 1970.

I’m fairly confident the family photo wasn’t taken in 1971, because by then my bangs were grown out, I wore brown glasses frames, my brother was as tall as me, and surely my little sister would have started losing her baby teeth.

But I still can’t tell whether it was Easter or Mother’s Day, 1970.

How do you date old family photos?