My Grandparents history

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59334927@N03/

Those are the photos of my grandparents and other family members from the 1930s-1970s that I posted on flickr.

I am going to be honest, I was not excited about this project. I thought it would be a pain to gather all the old photos from my grandparents. I went over there on a Saturday and knew I would be their all night. It turns out I would not have wanted to spend that night any other way. I got to see my grandparents in a whole other light. I am used to their attention focused on me and the rest of their grandkids. "What are you going to do with your life?" , "Tell me about school, your boyfriend..". I had an opportunity to learn things about them that I never knew before. Sometimes you forget your grandparents were young once. My favorite photos are the ones of my grandpa and his friends on the beach at Cooney Island. It was before he met my grandma. Cooney Island was a place where the emerging "mass culture" went to act against the ways of their predecessors, the genteels. The genteels were conservative and despertly tried to sustain "proper" Victorian culture. At Cooney Island young people wore bathing suits and acted promiscuously. It was cool to see my grandpa on the beach laughing and enjoying himself with a Ferris wheel in the back round. It was a perfect example of what Cooney Island stood for.
My grandma grew up in Brooklyn. She is the daughter of a blind immigrant from Ukraine. She is the youngest of nine. Her father left her mother right after she had my grandma. My grandma will tell anyone off and her history sure explains that.
My grandparents and I talked all night and got Chinese food. I ditched my friends and I am happy that I did.