Picture this: You see photos of you and your family from more than 60 years ago on a Facebook page — but you didn’t post them.
Instead they were developed by a stranger who purchased the camera lost to time from a thrift store in Iowa.
Now that stranger is looking for you.
Nancy Bleuer bought the cheap old camera — a Kodak Brownie Starmite, to be exact — last spring from Exceptional Treasures in Algona. She decided to develop the full roll of film and found memories going back at least three generations. There were smiling faces, trips to McDonald’s and vacations from a time when gas cost 94 cents a gallon.
Then, her search for the family in the photos began.
“I searched each picture for hints of who and where they could be. I asked three different coffee groups made up of retired people in my hometown” of West Bend, Bleuer said in an email to the Register.
But, as people often do, Bleuer got busy and the envelope of film was put aside.
Until recently.
“During Christmas break, I took pictures of most of the photos and made a post asking friends and family to not only see if anyone was familiar, but to please post and share it as much as possible,” Bleuer said.