LIFE

i'm going to reveal something really dorky about me. i love yard sales.

among all the junk and ugly clothes, the broken furniture and sad looking stuffed animals, the random pieces of dinnerware, are pure treasures.

don't believe me? i can understand. some people say that yard sales freak them out.

but i don't care. because every now and then, despite all the junk i've had to go through and the few awkward moments that come with the territory, i find something that i really love.

last Saturday, or in my words "yard sale day," was a lucky day. it was the first yard sale i stopped at, and there, i found some beautiful, slightly tattered up (making it all the better), vintage copies of LIFE magazine. (ok, so one person's treasure is another person's junk, i know i know.) but i'm such a sucker for media. i mean, one of the issues had the image of Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh's clutching embrace from Gone With the Wind, one of my favorite movies of all time, and with the iconic fire engine red and white LIFE magazine banner ... SIGH "i must have this so i can frame it!!" my other favorite issue in the mix was the LIFE 50th anniversary collector's edition from 1986.

it's hard to explain why this particular find makes me so happy. i just think that in today's world, magazines aren't what they used to be. and this now fact of life was much more obvious to me after spending hours devouring these lovely, old issues of LIFE. the photography is so artistic, not forced. the content is so well written, like i could drink it up all slow and luxurious-like, as if the words were as tasty and frothy as a thick chocolate milkshake.

i should know, i work with publications daily. ugh, i feel like i can't even call them publications anymore because so many aren't actually "publishing" anymore in physical copies, if at all ever in the first place. everything's online. i have to resort to just calling everything "outlets." it's nuts how blogs that you've never heard of before are just as newsworthy as the New York Times, or how a significant tweet from who-knows-who can make the morning news. it's incredible.

incredible, yes ... but, not nearly as enjoyable in my opinion. there's something about staring at a beautiful picture in a magazine, getting up close to it so your nose almost touches it as you pore over the little details, breathing in the ink of the page, appreciating the feel of the glossy pages between your fingers. and i had forgotten this, but old LIFE is a pretty large-sized magazine. i have the 50th on my lap right now and it reaches all the way to my knees. it makes me feel like a little kid, in a giddy way, with my favorite book in my lap when all books were large and reached to my knees.

so without further ado, i'm going to share a few tidbits from the editor's note at the beginning of the 50th edition which i hope will make you miss the world of magazines, too. the internet is great and all, but it's taken away so much of the charm of holding something you feel a connection to in your hands, or what if what you saw or read you loved so much that you wanted to tear it out and pin it up on your wall so you'd remember it forever? you just can't do that anymore. well, i guess you could technically, but it's just harder to do. and no one subscribes to magazines anymore, so what's the point? very sad.

from the editor:

"In the ensuing decades, LIFE became a staple of the American household, as ubiquitous as the family car and every bit as necessary. Readers came to depend on LIFE not just for news, but also for articles that could be deeply involving."

"LIFE looked searchingly at America, and in its pages Americans saw themselves. The magazine imparted a feeling that a vast nation could be brought together as a community."

"To pick up any copy of LIFE is to savor a bit of the world's history."

fascinating, right? and now some of my favorite images. it wasn't until after i had scanned them that i realized they all have a common theme: women's issues/interests, and then one hilarious cat pic thrown in for fun. it's interesting how i'm drawn to those topics. obviously the 50th anniversary issue of LIFE wasn't all about women.

anyway, to read the text please click on the images for larger view, and then again to magnify.