I suspect that most people my age have a place where many photographs are stored. I wonder how often they take those memories out of their hiding places and look at them. For me, not very often. The reasons are many; not enough time or other things take precedence.
Recently I started thinking about my memories on paper and decided to go through all of those hundreds of photos. A fire that destroyed someone else's paper treasures made me think I should scan my photos and store them someplace safe, like a bank safe deposit box. But as I started looking at those photos a terrible thing happened. I realized there were so many of people whose names I can't remember! So many places I can't really recall. They look familiar but try as I might, the names just don't come back. Why oh why didn't I take the time to write names and dates on the backs of those photos!
The color photos have mostly faded, a great many to the point that scanning and editing won't really help. This is probably due to the fact I am not expert at bringing old photos to life. I am going to try, but I don't hold out much hope. A great many were made with a Polaroid camera and some of those haven't stood the test of time too well.
Hundreds and hundreds of photos, maybe thousands! Albums and boxes of photos! What I really need to do is sort them into 'times' to make it easier to find that certain memory.
One of the disturbing things about looking at those photos is comparing 'then and now'. I see how young we all looked and then how we look now. I think I will have to stop looking at photos or stop looking in the mirror! But the saddest part of all is seeing the faces of those family members and friends no longer here. But I realize how fortunate I am to have these precious memories and now I have to work to preserve them. I suspect after I am gone, no one will really care about these captures from the past. But if a disaster occurs while I am here, I will surely be glad to have my memories safely stored away where they can be retrieved.
So now I have sorted enough and have started the scanning process. This is going to take a long time, weeks, months, maybe years! So guess I'd better get to work.
Martha
3 comments:
Another thing that can also work is taking a digital photo of some of those old memories. We have used it on newspaper articles, old Bibles, old photos, etc. My hubby then has a photo index made up and identifies who or what they are. Those are then stored in our safe deposit box. Good luck on your project Martha.
Boy can I relate to this ... especially the part about not remembering the names of people in the pictures or not remembering where or when the picture was taken! I have a huge box of old photos I've recently been trying to organize and, like yours, many of them are old and faded. Some days the memories make me feel good and other days the memories make me feel empty cuz I know I will never see some of those people again. But, at least we are fortunate to have many memories!
Hang in there, Mac!
LInda
Old memories are very important. Thank you for your project.
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