Behind The Awkwardness
The Christening
“This was my Christening, June 1971. I’m the baby obviously, my Godmother is holding me, my parents are next to her. Their hideous outfits aren’t the “awkward” part of this photo. In the background, my grandmother is pulling my sister’s hair while my brother is recovering from a smack! All of this right on the front steps of a church.”
(submitted by Debbie)
Hangman
“This is a picture of my grandmother, older brother, and my dad. The photo was taken well before I was born and I can guarantee this was my dad’s idea.”
(submitted by Rani)
Seeing Is Believing
“This miraculous photo is of my darling dear mother, in the 80’s, with what is obviously a cutout of the great Thomas Sullivan Magnum. The best part of this photo is the glasses, but, the second best part is the fact that my mom refuses to admit that it is a cutout.”
(submitted by Brian)
The Anniversary Party
“For my parents 20th anniversary, my mom decided to dress up in her wedding dress and get our family Christmas photos done in front of the place they were married. I’m the girl bending over trying to hold down my brother who wanted to get away for obvious reasons. Needless to say, it was not everything my mom had hoped for.”
(submitted by Shea)
The Rub
“This is my husband when he was 6 or 7. His grandma sent him to school on PICTURE DAY in this shirt. You can’t see the bottom, but the shirt actually says ‘Rub it easy, make it hard.’ No joke. His grandma obviously was clueless. Needless to say, he didn’t wear it to school again.”
(submitted by Wendy)
Buzzed
“When I was growing up, my dad was an amateur beekeeper. When a large swarm appeared in our backyard, Dad posed the neighbor Kenny and me (age 4) in front of it, for perspective I suppose. Those are finger puppets on my hands. We have other photos where we are standing even closer, but those didn’t come out as well.”
(submitted by Leslie)
Vacuum Boy
“As a child, my boyfriend loved appliances and in his eyes, all other appliances paled in comparison to the vacuum cleaner. When he was around five, his mom took him to a photography studio to get his portrait taken. He asked the photographers if they had any vacuums he could take a picture with. They found one in a broom closet and brought it out for him… the rest is history.”
(submitted by Joanna)
Puzzler
“This is a photo of my dad and my sister’s boyfriend putting a puzzle together while on vacation in Phoenix since it was so stinkin’ hot to go outside. I guess this was also a good way to keep track of the baby.“
(submitted by Joy)
The Chug
“This is a picture of my family on Easter sometime in the 90’s. I’m on the right with the stonewashed pink pants, mullet to match my older brother’s. The only thing in this picture that focuses the awkwardness away from me is my Grandpa in the next room slamming what I hope to be his first Easter beer of the day because if memory serves me correctly, we always took our pictures before church.”
(submitted by Phil)
MS Paint
“This is a picture of me (in the front) and my family. It was originally taken without my dad, as he was always off being a pilot somewhere. My parents were having problems at the time, and so, in wanting a complete family photo, my mother added my dad – cut out from another picture – to it. In that one, his head was 3x larger than ours, facing the wrong way, and his shirt had been marked in with a sharpie marker. When my parents stopped having problems, she changed the photo of him to the one now there. This was also the time that my mom discovered MS Paint. She thought my sister was being disrespectful by wearing an Arachnophobia shirt, so using her paint skills, she whited it out. She printed this gem and put it up in our family home, where it remained on the wall for over ten years.”
(submitted by Kaytee)
