Al's Bum

Last week while I was out shopping, I picked up this little book called Scraps. I don't know how to describe it to you other than to say it is about scrapbooking. The first few chapters are about the history of scrapbooking. This particular story made me laugh so I had to share. I wonder if it is true.

Little background - This chapter is talking about the history of photos. It talks about how when photos were first taken, people never smiled... they were very serious. Eventually people began requesting cameras for gifts and were taking pictures of everything. Pictures began to pile up in homes everywhere. And that is where this particular story begins.


(Typing straight from the book) Then - according to a photo-friend of a friend - on day a man named Albert was fixing a leaky pipe under the kitchen sink when his wife, as a joke, took a picture of his substantial backside, which was showing just a crack. Well, as you can imagine, that photograph made a lot of people laugh out loud. After all, this was the late '50s, and visual humor was nowhere near as sophisticated as it is today. Right.
Albert, who did not mind being the butt of a joke, put the photo in a book for safekeeping and easy access. Eventually the book containing Albert's photo came to be called The Book of Al's Bum, which soon was shortened. As in, "The bishop could use a good laugh, go fetch the Al's Bum book!"
Inspired by the photo-in-book idea, Albert's oldest son soon started a little business that sold the world its first photo Al-bum.