I always wondered what my grandparents were like when they were young. My mother had always spoken of her favorite photo of her parents. It was taken of them when they had just got married. This was her favorite photo although it was lost. She always described it to me as a very classy photo of them one the boardwalk at Atlantic City, looking like movie stars. “Dressed in the Ritz,” she always said. Never being good at picturing things, I always struggled to come up with the image in my head.

I never got a chance to get to know my grandparents. My mother was pregnant with me when my grandmother passed away. My grandfather passed when I was only seven years old. From what I heard, my grandparents were amazing people. My grandmother was a very funny loving person who always wanted to have fun and my grandfather was a kind soft-spoken loving man who always put his family before himself. They were truly honest people, making an honest living. My grandfather was a Brick Layer and my grandmother worked for Long Island Newsday.

Only until recently my cousin found the photo. When I saw it, I thought it was a picture in an old movie poster. I couldn’t believe that these people could be my grandparents. There was my grandpa in a trench coat and had a fedora hat on. My grandmother was in a elegant dress with a stunning fur coat. There is no doubt that they were turning heads as they walked down the boardwalk. It was blurred in the background but I was able to make out simple characteristics of the building behind them. It looked like the convention center; the only way I knew that was because I had recently stayed in a hotel right next to it. In fact I remember standing right where they were. It was amazing to think that the boardwalk that I walked on, which I was walking around in flip-flops and a tee-shirt then, was once a place where people would walk decked out in their best clothing. Needless to say when I look back now, I feel pretty under dressed.

By looking at this picture I was able to get just a little glimpse in to the lives of my grandparents and what kind of people they were. This snap shot of their lives showed me that I have big shoes to fill. It’s almost daunting how much I have to live up to; after all I am named after him.