This is a shorter one. Very little character development. I got the idea as my wife and I were going through old photos looking for our first batch to be sent away to be digitized along with some old Super 8 films. And no, my wife isn't the reason I wrote this, just my fevered brain in action.
Also, like most of my stories, there is no overt sex, especially any mention of anyone under the age of 18.
I was elbow deep in old photos that I was planning on sending to a local lab for digitizing when I came up with the perfect gift for my wife, our three kids, and our extended families next year when she and I celebrated twenty-five years of wedded bliss.
We had thousands of pictures from when we first met in grade school, right up through when we started dating in high school, on to college together, and then our married life. You would think that the pictures of when we were kids would still be with the respective parents but, no, Lizzie had asked for those when the kids were little so we had everything, now packed into these photo boxes I was elbow deep in.
Anyhow back to my idea. If I got all these photographs digitized I would have a huge collection to sort through and select a good number for a continuous slide show during our celebration. The kids could help as all three were local and it could be a surprise for my bride, Lizzie, short for Elizabeth.
I had put digitizing our photos for a long time as it was a daunting task, one that Lizzie had told me was my responsibility alone as she was too busy chasing kids, keeping house and also being the chief accountant at her business.
Oh, I suppose I should introduce myself before my ramblings get too far into the weeds. My name is Tracy Gold. I am forty-seven years old, my bride Lizzie is the same age. As I alluded earlier we grew up together, went to school together and entered adulthood and married life together. We are that couple, the one everyone else is jealous of. You know, the long term lovey-dovey sweet and sappy twosome that is always together at parties, seldom shop alone, attend all the kids' events. Yes, we are that couple, there is usually one in every group.
Lizzie isn't your drop dead gorgeous female, though. She is still slender but carries some extra weight from having three kids. She walks a lot, actually we walk a lot, as she drags me away from the snacks and the TV. It helps keep my weight from ballooning. Lizzie has deep brown hair that she keeps collar length. It curls nicely and fits the shape of her head. Her face is kind of plain but, even now, her skin is clear and without blemish and she only has a few wrinkles around her eyes. She agonizes when she finds a grey hair but she refuses to color it.
She has "B" or "C" cup breasts. I really don't know as I don't check the size of her brassieres. They are a nice handful but she claims they are starting to sag too much. Her waist has thickened a little from having kids and then carrying them around when they were little. Her hips are a little more wide than when we first married but then pushing out three good sized babies through the birth canal will do that.
That makes her rear a little wider also. Lizzie also agonizes over that at times. Yes, just like thousands of other husbands, she asks me if her dress or slacks make her ass look big and I have to try and be politic and not make her feel bad. What I do is immediately drop to my knees behind her and kiss that lovely ass through whatever she is wearing and sometimes she is not wearing any underwear so I get to drool, kiss, and nibble on that magnificent, at least to me, ass. She usually doesn't mind wearing whatever then as she knows I worship her. Do I get to occasionally ease my cock into that ass I worship? No, I only get to kiss it now and then.
She stands at about five and a half feet tall, just right for me, as I stand five foot ten. When she puts on her three inch heels when we go out for a formal date night we are then that great proportion. Her head is slightly below the top of my head. We can dance comfortably together and do so quite a bit.
I noticed some pictures from our college years. I was taking classes in computer design and systems analysis while Lizzie was working on her degree in accounting. We were exclusive and tended to only go out together even though we didn't live together. Both sets of parents were very conservative and had made it very plain that co-habitating was not an option if we wanted to continue a harmonious relationship with them (and get them to help with college expenses). I lived in the dormitory my freshman year, in accordance with college policy, but shared an apartment with two other guys the other three years. Lizzie stayed in the dormitory and became an RA so her dorm expenses were covered by the college.
During our junior and again in our final year Lizzie asked me to allow her to go out a few times with a group of girls and other guys just for "the socialization aspects" as we had been exclusive since middle school. It wasn't my first choice but I felt that in a group setting there would not be too much temptation to cheat so I didn't voice my concerns, just hoped she had fun.
She kind of went cool to me for a short while each time we "took a sabbatical" but then was back and we continued on as though we hadn't been apart. Did I date while she was out with her friends? Actually, no, I just buckled down and studied harder. I had goals and graduating with a high GPA was one of them.
Anyhow, back to the present.
I was thinking all the good thoughts, the great thoughts, the mellow and sad thoughts about our lives together and how we would buck the odds and celebrate first that Silver anniversary then the ones after that, and maybe even our Golden anniversary and with God's grace even our Diamond anniversary, probably while together in a care home but still with sound minds to realize it.
Then I found the small photo box hidden behind the rest. I opened it and found some Polaroids. I couldn't figure out where they would have come from as we had never had a Polaroid Instant Camera. I loved the idea but the cost of each photo, at the time, was kind of daunting. We were just starting out and money was tight. Regular film was far cheaper than the gratification of instant photographs. Thank God digital came out. We could then see the picture instantly, even faster than waiting for the photo to appear on Polaroid paper. So where did these photos come from? My heart sank as I looked through the many small square shots.
After a bit I put them aside and tried to sort through some of the rest. I finally put them all away and went to our cloud account.
Since the advent of the smart phone the majority of our photos were now images on a shared cloud account. Since we had them on our phones I don't think Lizzie had ever gone to the cloud account and looked at them. Included were even photos sent to us via text message. There I found some other images that made my heart hurt more.
Jump forward six months.
It was three weeks before our Silver Anniversary celebration. All the plans were finalized. The continuous slide show was finished and set to advance each slide every fifteen seconds and was accompanied by some soft piano music as Lizzie had always loved the piano even though she didn't play.
Originally I planned on surprising her with the finished presentation at the celebration, not even the kids had seen it, but I decided that Lizzie needed to see it for herself because I assumed she would not sit and watch the whole two hundred slides while we were celebrating with about a hundred family and friends.
Lizzie had gotten very busy with her accounting firm so I had to get on her calendar. Finally the evening had come and she promised to watch it in its entirety without allowing any interruption. She even shut off her phone.
Our huge plasma TV was to be the screen. It would show each and every memory in 4K clarity. I had moved our two individual chairs to the side and moved the loveseat to the fore so we had to sit together to see our lives unfold on the screen. We had not sat this close for quite some time. It felt good to me but I didn't know how it felt to Lizzie. At first she forced herself to keep from touching me. That changed as the slide show unfolded.
The title slide was "Remember When...?"
We started with "Remember When... We Were Kids Together?" Each slide was a different one of her or me then us together in grade school. Since we grew up next door to each other we had a lot of shared memories from that very young age. There was even one with Lizzie kissing me on the cheek while I had a very screwed up face. At seven years of age girls had cooties and I didn't want any.
Lizzie smiled and giggled at the pictures of our very young age. "Oh, Tracy, I had forgotten some of these photos actually still existed. This is going to be good."
A few more of us at a slightly older age, but still in grade school, that completed that section. We went on to "Remember When... We Were In Middle School Together?"
There were pictures of us attending our first boy/girl dance at the school. Lizzie was wearing a nice dress and I had on my first tie. Then there was confirmation in our local church. The whole class of us, about ten in all, were grouped for a couple of photos. There were also photos of soccer, football, and volleyball games where we developed some skills even though neither of us were starters.
