Photo Albums

12/4/2012

Photo Albums

Have you got a few of these lying around?  I do, but unfortunately what I've got more of is loose photos lying around.  After all these years they are stuck in desk drawers and shoe boxes - undated.  My mother had photo albums, the kind with black paper and you stuck the pictures in the album with little triangle corner pieces.  She was pretty good about recording the when and who of the pictures, which is more than I can say I've ever done.

When Mom got older she took her photo albums and tore them up into three piles - one for each of us kids.  In the mail we each received our portion of the albums with photos still stuck to the raggedy edges of the black paper.  My pages are in a box and it's likely that's where they will always be.  

For many years as we traveled, Dad took slides, which was the way at the time to capture your memories.  Trouble is dragging out a projector and screen takes a lot more effort than flipping through a photo albums so we kids were seldom treated to a slide show.  Dad did know one thing though - if you wanted to get rid of company - all you had to do is SUGGEST a slide show and they disappeared instantly.  Everyone likes looking at their own pictures - but yours?  Not so much.

When Dad passed away I took his gray metal boxes of slides home with me and they weighed a ton.  I stored them in the back of a closet and they have been there every since.  What would I like to see happen to the slides?  I'd love to have them put on a different media so that a walk down memory lane could be done often and painlessly.  

When Jeff and I started out on our journey our pictures were also slides.  Those slides like the pictures are stored everywhere.  Some boxes are actually marked as to the who and when but most are not.  I suspect that at a time in the future our boys will give the slides the old heave-ho.  

I am not a huge picture taker.  Dragging around a camera with me when I travel is an after thought and so much so that it normally stays home.  At least now the pictures you take are digital and can be downloaded into your computer and shared with family and friends.  In the old days, you remember, you took your roll of film to the store and waited for it to be developed - in a week - not in an hour. 

I have always had "intentions" of putting together photo albums worthy of Martha Stewart but the reality is that it's about as likely to happen as my winning the lottery - slim and none.  It would make a good rainy day project but I know that it will never rain enough to make me want to organize 38 years of pictures!  

P