No Snapshots in the Attic:

The granddaughter of the Cherokee woman had a restricted understanding of story of her family. The family had little money and time to spend on preserving keepsakes from the past. The author’s mother discarded an old photo of her father toward the beginning of the essay saying that it would only gather dust. I think the author was giving a real example of her family’s attitude toward family history. She explained her Grandmother’s background and traditions and it further emphasized their particular brand of family stories. It was an oral tradition that recorded their particular ancestry. They spoke to each other and interacted they way Cherokee tribe members would have done passing information along to the next generation. The grandmother’s death records were bare, because she had no documentation; her manner was not to have anything written down. That’s how it seems she left. It kind of gave her writer granddaughter a hard time, but well, I guess she could have learned a lesson from it all. She should listen to people and retain what was said when it was said. Idk…