Not that long ago, I started receiving emails from OneDrive titled “Your memories from this day.” At first, I didn’t really pay attention to them. My motto, stolen from a book called The Year of Jamie’s Diary (which I’m ashamed to admit was also stolen by yours truly from the Scarsdale junior high school), is “Forward ever, backward never.” But eventually, driven by a combination of curiosity and an urge to procrastinate. I opened one of the emails. My instant reaction was… what the hell is this???!!!
There are no dates. No explanations. Just mismatched photos taken God knows where and God knows when. What is Kyokukids.com and why do I have a photo of it? My own kid was never remotely interested in karate. When was I interested in that anti-aging serum? And are those photos of New York City? I assume so. But when did I take them? And where was I???
When and why did I take a picture of this photo of a literal anarchists’ picnic? My mother, grandfather, and grandmother are in there somewhere, along with a few relatives and friends. Who did I need to show this to? Hey look, it’s one of my vintage cookbooks! And photos from Eliza’s college orientation. At least I can date those: August 2018. But why on earth am I hanging upside-down in our local park and who took this picture? (It wasn’t a handstand. I can’t do those.)
And here’s a picture where everyone is upside down. Plus three photos from one of my many trips to New Orleans, and a picture of the terrifying fire that burned the hillside up the street from us one night. Luckily, the wind was light, saving our neighborhood from total incineration. You know what these pictures have in common? Absolutely NOTHING.
At last! A “Your memories of this day” where I have a context, if not a date, for every photo. Clockwise from top left, the question mark graphic is my go-to for occasional Cozy Mystery Crew posts; that’s a Christmas-themed frittata I made for a Mystery Lovers Kitchen post. (The recipe is in my third Catering Hall Mystery, It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Murder.); there’s our sleeping doggy Pogo; I downloaded a picture of Betty Crocker because I wanted to make a parody of it featuring me for a possible collection of recipes from my books that I never got around to putting together; and friends Keenan Powell, Chere Coen, and Mark Bologna joined me in a Zoom for the 2020 release of Murder in the Bayou Boneyard.
I’m now addicted to “Your memories of this day.” I can’t wait to see what surprises and mysteries lurk within each odd melange of photos. And you can bet that someday one of my protagonists will either spot a mystery or an important clue in one of their own “Your memories of this day.”
Readers, do you get these emails from OneDrive? If so, what do you think? If not, are there photos from your life that are now a total mystery to you?
Chicks on the Case 
Ha! I’ve been wondering about these emails. I know I never signed up for them. Of course I click every time—but one thing I’ve noticed is that they’re rarely the same day. or even the same month. Then I’m, like…Why? (Insert robot conspiracy theory here.)
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LOL. It’s so… random!
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I get them, Ellen. There is one overarching theme. I take a LOT of pictures of kitty cat Maria!
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Nothing wrong with that! 🙂
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Ha! I’m surprised more of Pogo don’t show up in my “Memories.” And keep those Maria pictures coming!
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No, I don’t get those email. Perhaps it is because I don’t use OneDrive.
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That’s got to be the reason, Dru. Well, it’s one less thing for you to be mystified by!
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I don’t use OneDrive on my personal computer, so no. I do use it at work – but naturally no photos there.
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It would very “Severance” if only work photos showed up on your feed!
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I do get them. In my cranky wake-up state, while taking my few first sips of coffee, I believe my daily reply is… “ Oh, Lord!!!…”
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Tracy, lol!
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I don’t use OneDrive, but I’m addicted to my memories on facebook. I find myself posting things just so I can remember and see them again next year!
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Those at least seem to make a semblance of sense. These are all, wha…?!
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I don’t even know what OneDrive is, so I guess I’m not likely to get these emails. But I love the randomness of all these photos you get, so perhaps I should investigate OneDrive and start using it!
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I feel like there’s another book waiting to be written here besides random photos as clues–maybe someone hacking into a system and framing somebody else.
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Ooooh! Or someone hacking in and sending a threatening message through the randomness that the receiver has to try to figure out to save someone or solve a mystery. Jen, we have our stand-alone suspense/thriller!
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Or…the person has no memory of the “on this day” photos–and it’s a murder.
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It’s from Microsoft. I have a subscription to Microsoft office. OneDrive is their clould storage system. The randomness used to bug me. Now I’ve embraced it!
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Ah, thanks! (Cheapskate that I am, I use OpenOffice.)
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Okay, now I’m the one who feels clueless. Leslie, I’ve never heard of OpenOffice.
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Whew! So glad you said that, Leslie. I was feeling very out-of-touch!
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Mary, it’s basically Microsoft’s version of iCloud – a storage system.
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Like Becky, I don’t use OneDrive but find myself peeking at those FB memories. It’s like a little surprise to me each time, especially the ones with the adorable kid quotes!
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I feel like the memories on FB pop up unexpectedly. But it sounds to me like you and Becky access them all the time. Are they a daily thing somewhere on our pages? FB confounds me a lot of the time.
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Yep. There’s a “memory” button I click every morning.
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You can manually access them or be lazy like me! 😉
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I look at my Facebook memories every day. Occasionally, there is something related to my life. Most of the time, however, it’s jokes I’ve posted.
As to photos I don’t remember out of context, I have 15 or so years worth of photos on my computer, and my screen saver is a random slide show of those photos. Many I can place by location is not date (too many Disneyland trips to date them all, for example), but there are times I look at one and wonder where it was. Not that I could ever find that particular picture in my hard drive. And I don’t take that many pictures.
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Mark, I think my equivalent of your Disneyland photos is the Christmas ornaments I’ve bought as a souvenir, expecting them to provide a memory of when and where I bought them. I love looking at them every year – but have totally lost track of their context!
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Just the other day, my MIL picked up a magnet and said, “Did I buy this?” (It does become an issue when people know you collect certain items and start gifting those as souvenirs to you.)
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I have a few of those ornaments as well. But most of mine that are souvenirs are rather obvious where they came from, which is nice.
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I don’t use One Drive either. But photos from iCloud pops up on my iPhone every day. It’s not date related. I had a Christmas one pop up the other day. And it seems to have its own faves that show up frequently, including one with my agent, which seems weird since I’m pretty sure it’s the only pic I have with her!
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Vickie, that’s so funny! The only pictures I have of my agent and me is when we dressed up in goofy costumes during a tour of Mardi Gras World in NOLA.
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We recently went to a family Reunion and my cousin put things on One Drive and I would not download it. Now after reading above, I am glad that I did not.
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I have trouble keeping all the photo storage options straight! All I know is that none seem to work when I want them to.
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Ellen this is AWESOME. I occasionally get back-in-the-day shots from Google photos, but my favorites are from Facebook. Some are very mysterious (like a close-up of a tiny plastic man clinging to a wine glass), but most are cute kid things that make me go awwwwwwww.
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