Today is one of the most important days of the year. It's so important its heavily advertised on ESPN so men won't forget.

This is Mother's Day, Super Sunday for greeting cards, long distance telephone calls, flowers, dining out and guilt, not necessarily in that order.

Photographs are also an important part of Mother's Day. Who besides a mother would be happy to receive your framed photo as a gift?

My wife and one of her sisters have been digitalizing old photos dating back to the early 1940s from my family. We've put them in an album for my mother today.

My wife's done the work. I've done the looking. When you start looking at old photos, it's impossible to stop. Looking at old photos, I realize things I never knew before about my parents.

For example, they were way too young to get married! They were in the 20s. But they look like kids. They look so young, what could they know about children? I'm surprised they didn't drop me on my head.

Maybe they did!

The photos make the memories roll: My grandfather "relaxing" in double-breasted suits, my dad in Coast Guard whites, birthday cakes, cowboy boots. We must have done a lot of eating because in half the family photos we're gathered around a dining table.

You see things you've forgotten in old photos. It's like being reacquainted with a long-lost friend.

A lot of our old photos were taken on Mother's Day. You know it was a Mother's Day when you see the whole extended family gathered around a couple generations of mothers who are wearing corsages.

Mother's Day photos are taken in spring gardens instead of the usual table filled with food. The mothers weren't cooking that day so there was no food.

I actually remember the exact moment when many of these photos were taken. Photos capture memories. Every time we see them the memory returns. We can even hear again what was said. I can hear my mother's voice calling fro 50 years ago: "Don't slide in the grass in your good pants before we get our picture taken."

Then again, maybe she said that just last year.

Life is busy. Mother's Day passes quickly into a Monday of work and worry.

Take a photo with your mother today.

Make a memory for a lifetime.

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