The Hatbox
February 23, 2026
Hello Friend!
For as long as I can remember, my mom has kept a hatbox full of family photos. When my girls were little, they always had permission to pull off the lid and look through the photos inside the box, any time. Usually it involved lots of giggling at how strange mom looked when she was a little girl, or those funny shoes grandma wore way back then. Many of the photos are faded now and the edges are yellowing, but they still tell a story.
These days we're able to capture every moment of life with our phones, and keep them all handy up in the cloud. Remember when we used to carry our film to the pharmacy to have it developed, and it took several days before the prints were ready?
And then after waiting, and paying money, we discovered that along with a few good shots we'd also paid for several blurry photos, or the kids had gotten hold of the camera and taken ten pics of the dog.... Fun times.
Now we can delete a badly framed photo in a second, and take endless videos of life at any moment. Which I love, by the way.
But there's something to be said about mom's hatbox, holding the photos in your hand and taking the time to really look at them. Remember what life was like. And yep, feel just a little bit amazed at how much things have changed.
After SO many years of use, my mom's hatbox is heavy with photos and falling apart, so I offered to send her a new one I just happened to find at my favorite thrift shop.
Honestly you don't see them much any more, since the actual storage of hats is rare and left mostly to royal party goers. But the one I found is in pristine condition and I hope will serve to store at least some of mom's cherished photo collection.
I guess it's my way of encouraging her to keep the hatbox tradition going just a little bit longer. Thanks mom!
