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Sad dumping old photos

2K views 30 replies 9 participants last post by  Pudsey_Bear 
#1 ·
Just having a clear out to change from an old book case to a new chest of drawers.
Dozens of photo albums housing thousands of pictures of visiting 39 states and tourist locations from Los Angels to Florida over the last 30 years.
Seems a shame but what do you do with them. I don't want to spend a month scanning and 'saving' them to CD as they will still not get looked at.

Just skipping through them now brings back so many memories of easy travel times and people we met. :crying:

Ray.
 
#3 ·
Makes me wonder Baz. They haven't been looked at for 20 years like the old VCR tapes of the states. Binned them.
I guess they only mean something to us and as you say young, hairy, slim, unwrinkled and carefree. 25th. wedding anniversary on the Queen Mary.
But the kids will have so much of our junk to dispose of they won't have time to flick through snaps.

Ray.
 
#4 ·
They will Ray. My mother after my father died had a purge and chucked out all sorts of stuff. When she eventually passed away we found hardly any old photos or memories of them. I think what was left my sister and brother probably took and I have hardly anything to remember them by. My father wrote plays and a couple of books, some of which ended up on Radio four and was a regular contributor to several sporting magazines and papers. God knows what happened to all of that. Its like they never existed. Sorry if thats a bit morbid but stuff like that I think is important.

Thats why Ive made so many youtube music videos so that if anything happens to me you can all watch them over and over again. :D
 
#6 ·
Don't throw them! My parents separated when I was a teenager, we think my Father took a load of photograps (of when we lived in Australia when I was a child) when he left and they've ended up in the possession of his partner although she denies it. My Mother is now in a care home with dementia, she has a fairly large shoebox of photographs which my Sister and I have loved looking at and sharing with cousins and lifelong friends. It's a shame about the missing ones but my Sister and I treasure the ones we do have. Don't underestimate the sentimental value of family photos - even for future generations.
 
#7 ·
I couldn't possibly part with any of our photos, they are all in albums and I have 3 full of very old photos, of my brothers when they were young for instance, but I often have a look at one album of another when we are reminiscing about our live together. Of course lots of the pictures include our eight deceased dogs and I would never part with them.😑
 
#8 ·
But most of these are our travel snaps and not really family photos. I'm sure my wife will be hanging onto early family and kids pics but not holiday snaps.

Ray.
 
#10 ·
Thanks Jan, it's outa my hands now and decisions have been made for me...…..:crying::crying:

Ray.
 
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#12 ·
Yes Pat, very wise. I keep a drawer of old photos as well as 'ours' and often need to refer to them as an example or proof. I think I might have to start whittling those down as well.
Part of the reason we have so many snaps was as a truck driver back in the 70s you tended to swap wares you were transporting with other truckers?? I used to barter with soap and shampoo and ended up with a very large trade in Kodak film amongst other things.

Ray.
 
#13 ·
And did you develop your own snaps?

I have a traumatic memory of my dad opening the back of our camera to release a stuck film. He went behind the sofa to do it! Whole film ruined!! On that film were pictures of a black foal, which I had just bought, frolicking in the snow. I was so excited about those photos as she was never going to be a foal again and who knows when it is going to snow in East Anglia? Gutted :(:(
 
#14 ·
morning all


ray truck drivers used to acquire all sorts of items as part of there delivery contacts


regarding photos

about 10 years ago i scanned all the wedding photos and photo shopped proof only away from them as we were conned by the photographer

they are now on a disk and computers but as you say holiday snaps just get junked at a later date

whilst clearing out my mates van i found all there photos most were all c--p but i will hang on to them and give them to the family when they come to portugal to visit there mum in november


barry
 
#15 ·
Thats the other thing Barry. We both have different priorities on saving them. My wife tends to save any snaps with any family members even backs of heads and blurred ones and I tend to save memorable locations and points of view.

Yes truck drivers bartering knew no bounds. But soap and shampoo was always in demand unlike bread and puff pastry mix?

Ray.
 
#17 ·
'Fence' was an honoured profession in them days. Moreso than lawyers today.

Ray.
 
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#18 ·
i used to work in a yard were the truckers used to deliver bulk Cinzano

they all ways had 5-10 gallons left over in the tank and drained it into 5 gallon plastic drums in the end they just gave it to anyone that wanted it as its not like a drum of beer especially in the 70s

about 20 years ago i worked on some machinery at LDV vans for a couple of months the big thing there was all sorts of spirits 12 bottles to a box

they were supposed to go abroad some sort of vat scam but never made it south of birmingham

barry
 
#20 ·
One of my biggest regrets is not having more pictures of friends and family.
 
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#21 ·
I can't bear to dump old Photos, they are all a picture of your past that should be savored and kept for your future generations.
As a teenager I took thousands of photos and developed and printed them myself, when I left home my mother gave them away along with my developing equipment and enlargers.
I just hope that whoever got them was a historian and will save them for future generations to enjoy.
 
#22 ·
I scanned in all our old photos (well over a thousand) some years ago when I retired. The first summer after retiring was great with lots of things to do but come the winter it got very boring and I realised all I was doing was watching Sky Sports and drinking beer. Mrs P told me that that couldn't continue so I instead I sat in my study in front of the computer scanning in photos - and drinking beer and watching Sky Sports!

That took two winters to do - the third, fourth and fifth ones were copying home videos (analogue and digital) on to blue ray discs ( whilst watching Sky Sports...) and I've now spent three winters (off on on) copying all my LP's into lossless FLAC whilst...

I don't often look at the photos but I think that there may come a time when I will want to. However Mrs P and my two daughters regularly look at them - I have them on my home server and my daughters (both in Australia at the moment) regularly connect in just to browse through them.

So in summary, I scanned them in for posterity - plus so I could carry on watching Sky Sports and drinking beer without interruption!
 
#23 ·
Understood Peter and you can probably see why I decided not to spend weeks or even months scanning thousands of pictures/snaps onto CDs for no one to look at them still.
I did start to store all my wifes digital snaps onto CDs and they hav say in my drawer for at least 10 years gathering dust. The likelihood of our kids ever looking at them for a second is so remote I don't think I will bother.

My wife is now keeping some of the family that can be condensed into a few shoe boxes but thats it.

Ray.
 
#24 ·
Personally I would rather look at the photo Album I hold in my hand, the photos are not as sharp maybe, but like some people would rather read a paper book than an e-reader I like old fashioned photo Albums.

I have never scanned an old photo to look as nice as the paper picture.
 
#26 ·
I also have the albums still Jan but if my daughters in Australia (for example) want to look at them then that's a problem! In fact whilst I said I don't often look at them, when I do I can get them to display on the TV in my study - or now on my laptop in whichever of my holiday homes I'm now in. :wink2::grin2:
 
#25 ·
I obviously can't speak for other people's kids Ray but I wonder if you might be surprised? A few years ago (after scanning in my own photos) I turned my attention to my late dad's. The photos were poor quality but I had the negatives so I bought an appropriate scanner (later re-sold on ebay) and scanned them all in. There were photos that I could never recall having seen of myself and my sister as young children upwards with my deceased parents. I gave a DVD copy of the photos to my sister who spent several nights watching them and it really made her day (nights).
 
#28 ·
Our two boys Peter are chalk and cheese. The elder is minimalistic and carries very little with him after two 'divorces' where he was happy to let everything go.
The younger is the exact opposite and hoards everything in a vast garage again never to be seen again and probably chewed to bits by the mice.
Neither actually want our holiday and travel snaps only the file I have on my parents and my dads war time documents. Including quite a few of their old pre war pics.

But somehow I can't see myself scanning this lot as well as all the albums my wife stores.

Ray.
 

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