Abrams Family 1960s |
My parents didn’t take many pictures
of us, and I suspect their limited budget kept them from snapping away. They
had a couple of inexpensive cameras, but film and developing turned out to be a
luxury. At one point, my father purchased an instamatic Polaroid that spat out
a picture from its slatted mouth. I remember all of us gathering around in
anticipation as the brownish square developed into a picture. These photographs
didn’t stand the pressures of time, and most never made it to the nondescript
brown box on the floor of my mother’s closet. You know the box I mean—the one
where all pictures get tossed with the idea that “someday” they will be
organized into photo-albums with neatly printed dates and labels. When my
parents finally did arrange their few pictures, they couldn’t remember specific
dates or names of various friends. They gave up the idea of a chronological
order and instead created a binder for each of us kids and a hodge-podge file
of their own lives “pre-children”
I swore to myself that I’d stay on
top of my own camerawork, so when David and I purchased a use Pentax K1000, I
picked up an album along with the first roll of film. Whenever it looked like
we neared the last pages of a folder, I’d buy a new one. Both of us love
playing with the camera, and we coupled our picture taking with bike treks. For
a couple with limited funds, taking our bikes down a back road and stopping for
wildflower photo-opts filled endless weekend hours.
Eventually, we designated the upper shelves of a closet for these massive volumes of memories. After Paul’s birth, we added more shelves. And although we had computers in our home long before many of our friends and family members because of David’s freelance business, we dragged our feet at converting to digital cameras. Our old trusty Pentax still took lovely pictures, and over the years we’d added lenses and filters. Technology eventually won out, and we bought a small pocket sized Canon that we used until we “inherited” our Canon Rebel T1i from my son, who switched over to a Nikon D5100. I have to admit, I love grabbing my Rebel and snapping shots of budding Mountain Laurel, the dogs sleeping in bed, or a view from the Irish shore. I can simply plug my camera into my laptop, create folders, and organize to my heart’s content. Sharing my photography takes a simple click or two.
Until Throw Back Thursdays! The
sharing of old pictures on Facebook nudged me into picking up my old project.
At first, I thought I’d organize everything in my computer chronologically, but
I soon realized that system would require us to remember which year something
had occurred if we wanted a picture of a person or event. I decided to organize
by category: Paul’s Firsts, Vacations/Day Trips, Christmas, Abrams Outings,
Chapman Gatherings, etc. This method suits us best because we have more than
thirty years of photographs to arrange. I’ve also made many executive decisions
on which memories we need to scan, since we probably have more than 6, 000
pictures! I finally resolved that “one” of each would provide a good starting
point. Completing this project will take time since David’s also taking the
time to restore some photos to their original color and vibrancy. In the
meantime, we’ll continue to share with our family and friends snippets of our
lives together.
Copyright 2014 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman
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