Future Tense, Past Perfect

Why am I doing this?

I found a couple cardboard boxes of old photos a few weeks ago (mostly of me – not ’cause I’m egotistical or anything, but my mother gave all my baby pictures to my wife a while back). Since then I’ve been pecking away at scanning them all into the computer to join the 15,000+ digital photos I’ve taken. I kinda figger it’d be nice to have them all in one place…

Here’s a nice picture of me and my mother. I’m the younger one.

I’ve been enjoying the photos and memories, seeing my brother and sister when they were little. And it’s fun to see my parents when they were young and wonder what they were like before they had kids.

But today I had a bad thought. I hate those. But they happen occasionally. “Why am I doing this?” I thought to myself. “I don’t have kids. In 30 years, who’s going to care that I carefully saved all of my baby photos?” The thought depressed me so much I skipped my daily Esperanto lesson. Will anyone look back at my photos and think, “Hmmm… Great uncle Chris looked silly with short hair,” or will my archives slowly molder away, gradually becoming as obsolete as all those college papers I saved on a 5.25″ floppy?

I’m going to keep scanning, though. There must be a purpose to this.

If you’re reading this on Facebook, you can see the original blog at www.radloffs.net, click on “Blog.”
8 Replies

8 thoughts on “Future Tense, Past Perfect”

  1. mwd

    Ah, Chris.
    It is very much worth doing.
    And then take all your scanned photos, burn them to media & store the media in some remote, safe location.

    I lost all my family photos, along with all the rest of my posessions, in an apartment fire a few years ago. The photos are the only thing I’ve ever missed. They included an album of my parents’, full of photos of people I didn’t know and places I didn’t recognize but who were at one time very important to the parents. It was a connection to them and I regret not being able to renew that connection.

    Scan. Save.

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  3. katrocket

    hey that’s a great photo. I did a similar scan & catalogue thing last year with old family photos my mom had sitting in boxes in the basement. She had a minor flood and was relieved the photos weren’t damaged, but instead of tempting fate, I transferred everything into a CD slideshow and made copies for family members as a gift. In that time, I learned a whole lot about the history of my family and long-lost relatives/ friends, so I’m really glad I took the time to do it….and you will, too!

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  4. David Stefanini

    I love the blog that you have. I was wondering if you would link my blog to yours and in return I would do the same for your blog. If you want to, my site name is American Legends and the URL is:

    http://www.americanlegends.blogspot.com

    If you want to do this just go to my blog and in one of the comments just write your blog name and the URL and I will add it to my site.

    Thanks,
    David

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  6. ArtieLange

    Don’t do it, Chris! Don’t trade links with that guy’s site. The photos on the other hand, the photos are great. I’m not sure what people will think of them in 30 years, but I am enjoying them today.

    Anychance we can see a Radloff timeline of pics?

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  7. Chris

    You guys are all so nice… I’ve decided that once I get all the photos scanned I’m gonna burn ’em off to CD or DVD and give it to the beloved Goddaughter along with all the genealogy stuff I’ve collected when she’s old enough to be intersted in that sort of thing.

    A Radloff timeline – I like that idea! Do I have to post photos of that awkward stage I went through, though from the ages of five to thirty-two?

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