The origin of my avatar

Here’s the avatar I’ve been using for a few years.

While buying old camera gear from someone on Craigslist, I noticed a pile of negatives on the kitchen table. He didn’t know who they belonged to originally, nor how he came to have them, so was happy to give them to me.

The negatives were family photos from the early 1900s. I scanned them all. They are fascinating to me. One of my favorites shows a man in overalls, smiling, with a pipe clenched in his teeth. He’s pushing a woman in a wheelbarrow. They are both laughing, and the man’s smile looks so genuine and comical that I now use it for my avatar. It makes me happy.