Flipping through black and white photographs and imagining how colorful life was in days gone by can be difficult.

Leaves on the trees, grass, even flowers are fixed forever in varying shades of gray.

The people in the photographs take on a plain starkness, too. Hair color, eye color and complexion are all left to the viewer’s imagination.

Perhaps that involvement is what makes looking back at these old photographs so much fun. Many people prefer the purity of black and white images because they strip away the distractions of color and show the world at its most basic level.

The world may have been filled with colorful people, places and things, but before the Eastman Kodak Company gave us vividly colorful images for the memory books, it required some imagination to see it in our mind’s eye.

Our imaginations have been in overdrive in the recent weeks building up to tomorrow’s opening of the 75th anniversary of the Natchez Spring Pilgrimage.

We’ve published a number of historic photographs depicting the people, places and things that make Pilgrimage such a special event for our community for the seven and a half decades of its history.

The photographs certainly depict a changing community, but also a community steeped in history and in tradition.

Pilgrimage is something that touches us all, in some way or another. Pilgrimage shapes our community’s culture, our economy and our people.

We hope this year’s anniversary celebration kicks off another 75 years of colorful history and memories.