These pictures are not going to enter any contest nor get used for wallpaper anywhere (including my own laptop).  But they are very significant.  At least to me.  See, they represent the first time I got a used camera from someone to use and likely the first pictures I ever took as a 7-8 yr old.

The choice of B&W was not intentional.  I don’t recall if my Mom went to buy me the film.  I think it is more likely the film was with the unused camera and I just took the film that was there.  Color photography had existed FOR YEARS, for the record, when I took these pix 🙂

The pictures are of what seemed the world to me at that time, before I realized I would live to travel (or even that there was much of anything outside of MY world).  The pitures are from the world around my home.  I lived in this house (in Jardines de Caparra, for those of you who know PR) probably 3 or 4 yrs, about 6 houses away from my grandparents and one of my aunts/uncles.  And in the same neighborhood as 3 other aunts/uncles (if I recall correctly).

So, they are not going to do anything special in this world.  They only have real value to me (maybe my sister or Mom if they remind them of something from long ago).  But they show my first steps of discovery and wonderment at the world out there – worth capturing with an old camera…

Looking to the right of the front porch towards where Skippy, the dog, lived

Of course, I wanted a picture of the sun across the street from (us facing west and towards the river in front of the house). I didn’t know a ring would show on the pic!

A picture of the back of Skippy’s house, notice the bars on windows that have been ever present in the Puerto Rico I knew…

I believe this is the house 4-5 houses down from us towards the corner where one of my buddies lived.

The front of our house. Not sure why I didn’t do the whole facade!

The other neighbor’s house with the “sauce llorón” (weeping willow, I think). Where Meiling lived (she was not Chinese, not sure why the parents chose the name).