Start your story with a character looking through an old family photo album.

Posted in Fluff on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 44 stories

“Time travelling” by Isobel Tynan

Submitted to Contest #120

Ais and I had never actually met Granny. From her photo, we weren’t sure we wanted to. Pinned between the album’s curling cellophane sleeves, Granny’s sepia likeness cast a formidable figure. Rigidly posed, tightly buttoned in her floor-sweeping black dress, she fixed us with a Medusa stare and a downturned mouth. When Mammy saw us looking she smiled but her eyes were sad and she hugged us both tightly.That summer, we visited Granny for the first time. Daddy didn’t want to. We’d heard them talking them through the thin be...

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“Dusty Little Things” by Bee Wing

Submitted to Contest #120

My hand reached for the dust-covered photo album on the shelf. God, does he ever clean? The deep brown leather cracked with age and became rough. I wandered to the familiar old beige couch that belonged to my grandmother, Maggie. Now it smelled of mildew. The air was thick and stale despite a breeze drifting through the trees outside. I stopped myself from sniffing the book for fear of an allergy attack. Stupid, dust. The cover was stiff as it opened and then I was met with a soft round face. The familiarity released a torrent of tear...

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“The Sisters” by Antonia Sn

Submitted to Contest #120

The sisters It was on a Sunday afternoon in the beginning of April. Mum and I were planning for my birthday celebration coming on in a few days. The year before, we had celebrated my 8th birthday with a big garden party. Mum had arranged everything in style. We had separate tables set for children that the adults decorated with butterflies made of silk paper, daffodils and light blue grape-hyacinths. Mum baked a three-tier birthday cake. Dad took pictures and worked for hours to make them look pretty in beautifully cut picture frames. M...

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“Sentimental Memories” by Peter Phoenix

Submitted to Contest #120

“Lizzy, come and check this out,” Jake shouted and his voice echoed from the attic. “Be right there, I just need to pack the rest of the food,” replied Lizzy from the kitchen. “Did you find something interesting?” “You bet!” he replied with an excited voice. “A wooden chest full of old family albums, you need to see this.” Jake pulled out the photo book that was on the top, with a gentle blow removed the thin layer of the dust, revealing the caption ‘Summer, 95’. He carefully opened it, taking a peek at the first page. It was a color...

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“MY THANKSGIVING PLEDGE: Thanksgiving, 2021” by Julia Corliss

Submitted to Contest #120

MY DEAR FELLOW AMERICANS, I was fifty-nine years old when my parents died, and I inherited my grandparents’ photo albums, as well as my parents’ photo albums. I still have them at age seventy-five. Most of the people pictured there are dead now. Every once in a while, I pull out one of the albums and remind myself of all the love and memories packed into them. Photography made it possible to capture frozen moments in time that otherwise might’ve slipped into memory’s shadows. I was one of the lucky ones born into a loving family who wanted...

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“Grandma's Prince” by Lisa Neuvelt

Submitted to Contest #120

Grandma’s PrinceZoe and her family had just returned home after her grandfather’s funeral. She got her grandmother settled in a chair. “Sweety,” Grandma Rose said. “Please bring me my bag.” Zoe did so, handing her grandmother a large tote bag.Grandma Rose pulled out a photo album. “Come sit by me,” she said “Let me tell you a story. A fairy tale of a Prince and his Princess.”Zoe quickly grabbed a chair and placed it next to her grandmother’s.Grandma Rose opened the photo album. The first pi...

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“The Room At The Top Of The Stairs” by MW Alabi (pen Name Lareene WJ)

Submitted to Contest #120

In this house, there are not many books. No book shelves. No library cards. But upstairs to the right while searching for something is a dark dusty poorly lit room. Storage? It’s called an attic. A quick view does show old papers, furniture pieces, small piles of clothes, newspapers and knick knacks. I go through a few things. Always on alert for spiders, bugs and the unidentified something. God forbid a mouse or a rat! I gently lift a yellowing shredding window shade to let in some natural light. I lo...

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“False Memories” by George Williams

Submitted to Contest #120

Emily Miller is a friendly, outgoing young girl. She enjoys helping her mother, Tracie, care for her two younger siblings. She is an above-average student. She is learning to play the violin and with her mother’s permission, she volunteers as a candy striper at the local hospital. For all intents and purposes, she seems like a normal twelve-year-old girl. But if you look a little closer, there is sadness in her eyes. One Saturday afternoon, Tracie was preparing to go grocery shopping. The sports shoes she usually wore to go out were in the...

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“David” by Kathy Philpott

Submitted to Contest #120

David There was one picture of David in the yellow and tattered photo album Jean found inside a box in the garage. He was a sweet-faced, blond little two-year-old boy with Downes Syndrome. Jean's parents never talked about him even though he was Jeans' older brother. David became a sad and terrible secret in the already cold, dysfunctional family. Talking about David was forbidden. Jeans' mother's world revolved around golf and drinking. Jean was dismissed and neglected. Her father traveled for business, and his world was his work. Alt...

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“48 Years is a Long Time” by Bill Kemp

Submitted to Contest #120

48 Years is a Long Time Blind dates can be risky propositions. No matter if the man’s handsome, or the woman’s beautiful, it’s the sprockets spinning inside the other person’s noggin that matters. Neither idle chatter nor dark ruminations make for a satisfying date. But if the other individual is witty with insightful prognostications, then you’ve got a ‘keeper’. I met that person, the one who I couldn’t live without, in the month of October. The year was 1972 and I was a man on the go, jetting from the corporate headquarters in Omaha, Neb...

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“Happy Retirement” by Betty Jean Ward

Submitted to Contest #120

Happy Retirement Marla flipped through the age worn pages of the family album thinking how each picture told a story. She came across pictures of her dad’s retirement party from June of 1982 at the ‘Knights of Columbus’ hall. The one photo of her dad and mom spoke volumes. She never seen her dad so happy as he grasped her mom around the shoulders pulling her in close. She could see the lines of stress relieved in his huge smile. He had such a good time that night. Seeing his friends from work, dancing the jitterbug with ...

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“Camp Hartford” by Lola Borchardt

Submitted to Contest #120

I ran to my room as fast as I could. I slammed the door behind me. I couldn’t let Victoria see me cry. Ever since my mother had died I had tried to hide myself from my family. No, not my family, something different. My step-family. In this family I was an other. I pulled an old family album from under my bed. I opened to the first page. A picture of my parents took up the entire page. My mom with her long blond hair stood next to my dad with brown hair, my mom in her white wedding dress. My dad stood next her in a tuxedo but his messy ...

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“Old photographs” by Megan Bailey

Submitted to Contest #120

“Do you ever wish that you could hit the rewind button and live in moments from your life again?” Noel asked as she looked up at her husband, Mark, from her seat on the living room floor. She was surrounded by piles of old photographs. Old photographs from her childhood that she had taken on an old, disposable camera. Photographs of awkward smiling teenage friends that she hadn’t spoken to in probably twenty years, even though they had accepted each other as friends on Facebook long ago. Photographs of Noel in her wedding dress, feeling beau...

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“The Photo Album” by Stan Konwiser

Submitted to Contest #120

Ashley Thomas continued the long, slow process of clearing out the nooks and crannies of her condo. She had been living there for more than 20 years as her family grew and then disintegrated. The final divorce settlement was forcing the condo sale. Ashley sighed and took another box out of the closet. It contained about a dozen photo albums from happier times. Looking for any distraction, she carried the box to the living room and set it down on the coffee table. Settling on the co...

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Start your story with a character looking through an old family photo album.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 44 stories

“Time travelling” by Isobel Tynan

“Dusty Little Things” by Bee Wing

“The Sisters” by Antonia Sn

“Sentimental Memories” by Peter Phoenix

“MY THANKSGIVING PLEDGE: Thanksgiving, 2021” by Julia Corliss

“Grandma's Prince” by Lisa Neuvelt

“The Room At The Top Of The Stairs” by MW Alabi (pen Name Lareene WJ)

“False Memories” by George Williams

“David” by Kathy Philpott

“48 Years is a Long Time” by Bill Kemp

“Happy Retirement” by Betty Jean Ward

“Camp Hartford” by Lola Borchardt

“Old photographs” by Megan Bailey

“The Photo Album” by Stan Konwiser

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about a character who yearns for something they lost, or never had.

Start your story with the line ‘Back in my day…’

Write about two characters’ different perspectives of the same past event.

Your character has always viewed the past with rose tinted glasses. Write about what happens when they’re finally confronted with the truth.

Contest #120

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

244

Contest entries

163

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: