These are scans of photographs taken from the time I was born in 1952 until I started taking slides in 1966. Click on the "Navigation Bar" above to bring up the desired page.
As I was creating this section the set of pictures were for my brother's 60th birthday. That became "round one".
When I started to work on it again, 2 years later, that was "round two".
I thought I was finished then I found another bunch of pictures, that is "round three".
If in the future I find more, that will be "round four". (Found it!)
And I know there is another photo album of pictures taken with my camera... that will be "round five".So each page has pictures within this date range, but they aren't in order. If you really need to see them all grouped together in (hopefully) chronological order, maybe you should see my Flickr collection of these pictures.
| It has been quite difficult doing this project. The difficulty
comes on at least two levels. First is deciding what to scan and put online, meaning the other pictures will soon be discarded. The pictures that are out of focus, the exposures that can't digitally compensated still present an image that brings back memories and helps tell a story. So what to show, what to let go. What stories to write down here, which ones to fade away with other memories. Second is trying to determine the accuracy of the dates. This is because my parents didn't really put all these photos into an an album until very late in the 1960's. Before that most the pictures were just kept in the various envelopes that came back from the photo processor. Those envelopes were stuffed in the kitchen junk drawer, the hope chest, and other such places to be dealt with later. And because processing film and having prints made was an expense to be delayed, film often sat in the camera for months. So the dates often imprinted on the border can be off by 1 or 2 years sometimes.
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 One of the cameras my mom and dad used up until their Polaroid SX-70 in 1972 looked just slightly more modern than this. (It used 620 film.) |
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Other cameras came and went. Including an Instamatic 104 my brother Buzz had. I also had a little camera that used 620 film, but unlike mom & dad's camera, mine had a flash! |
When the albums were put together in the late 1960's there was much
effort to gather all the photographs in the house, sort them, make notes
on them and put them in albums. The effort was mostly successful, but as more pictures would show up they would be put in album that might be in right chronological sequence. Furthermore the albums weren't archive quality. Mostly clear plastic sheet over pre-glued pages. So frequently, when I take out a picture to read the notes on the back, it is really stuck to the page. |
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| So as I have fussed over my parent's pictures, I wonder
what will become of my efforts. Will this web page endure?
On a memory stick, on some CD or DVD? Will anyone see this after
I've gone to meet my mom and dad in that junk drawer in the sky? I guess I'll never know. But for now this seems like the right thing to do. Because I know I enjoy looking at other people's pictures. Maybe someone will enjoy looking at these. |
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