These days, with constantly evolving technology, the vast majority of us carry a camera in our pocket or bag, enabling us to instantly capture a moment in time and see the image we’ve snapped immediately.

 

Back in the day, these images were stored on a roll of film within our cameras, which often only came out for special occasions and holidays, and we had to wait till we’d taken sufficient photos to complete the film, then send it off for developing. We had no option but to have our photos printed and there was much excitement as the package was opened.
Unless you were a keen photographer, some of the enclosed photos would be months old. Others would be blurred or off kilter, leaving you a little disappointed with your efforts.

Over the past few weeks I have been taking a stroll down memory lane. Almost all of us, of a certain age, will have photo albums, shoe boxes or old biscuit tins overflowing with these hard copies of our memories. The problem is they take up space in our cupboards, or are stored in the loft or under the stairs, which makes it difficult to enjoy them.

No matter how well you store these prints, they don’t age very well, losing their colour and fading, leaving you in danger of memories fading too. I have a fairly large collection of albums, a couple of biscuit tins and a shoe box or two with black and white photos of myself and the hubby as children.

On some of the cold and rainy days during lockdown I started the mammoth task of working my way through our collection and digitising them. The plan is to scan and organise them into digital albums sending them up into the cloud, for storage. (Hopefully I’ll be able to bring them back down to earth when I need them).

The difficulty is where to start. Our physical albums aren’t stacked in any particular order in the cupboard, but the contents of each album are fairly well organised. So I decided to start with the albums. But as I pull them out of the cupboard, this has meant I’ve had random memories popping up as I work my way through.

We have a lifetime of memories tucked in their little pockets or stuck behind the self adhesive pages, from our teens when we first met, all fresh faced, youthful and slender, starting out on our adventure together, to our time living in Germany under the wings of the armed forces family, to our return to civilian life.

Photos of our kids, our family’s kids and our friends kids, at various times in their lives, growing up, enjoying happy times together and making lifelong bonds.

There have been weddings and christenings. Celebrations of special birthdays and anniversaries. Parties for kids, our birthdays, Christmases and bringing in various New Years.

I have had a few moments of reflection as I turned pages to find photos of grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, who are sadly no longer with us. Faces smiling back at me of friends, who left us far too young and will never grow old with us.

In amongst these are the baby photos as our grandchildren came along and sharing the joy with family and the besties as their own grandchildren were born. There are albums full of fun outings with family and friends, from when all our kids were small, to their teenage years.

Then there are our holiday adventures, some with our girls, some with our older grandkids and some as the girls left home and we spread our wings on our own to China and Indonesia.

Trips with the besties to Paris during the countdown to the new millennium, with other great friends to the Olympics in Sydney, a 40th birthday trip to Portugal and on a road trip in America.

So many happy, happy memories. It seems so sad to tuck them away in the cupboard.

I am hoping once digitised, it will make our personal stories through time, more accessible to the whole family and free up space in the cupboards as I’ll be able to store the hard copies carefully in the loft.

The process of transferring all these wonderful memories, will take some time, but it’s a pleasant way to spend a wet and windy afternoon and hopefully they will give us more pleasure for years to come.