There was a time, it seems, that many families made slides from their family vacations. I come across tons of these slides – paper and glass – from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. With DVDs, video cameras, digital cameras and web storage, we have other avenues for recording our precious moments.
This is now. Slides were then. Recently, I bid on and got two boxes of slides at an auction. I knew before I looked at them that the images were not African American families. Rarely do I find photos or slides from our families.
I’m always saddened – and intrigued – to find these slides that someone lovingly stored in Kodak boxes and metal slide containers. That same someone took the time to label each slide with the location and date. These memories meant something to them.
The slides I acquired at auction dated from the 1950s through 1970s. I think that there was a box for every year during the 1950s. The slides ranged from vacations to Maine, New York, Chicago, and includes a 1972 trip to Europe.
There were slides of work on the family’s home: a new roof, a new sidewalk. A nice slide of the family’s backyard and snow on the front lawn. Christmas at various times during the 1950s. Kids playing in an inflatable backyard pool. Mom and daughter gardening.
What will happen to all the photos and videos that we are now accumulating? I have several photo albums from years ago, and I’m sure you do, too. Will a son or daughter or sister or brother toss them into the trash when they’re cleaning out our things? Or hand them over to an auctioneer – if you’re lucky enough to have a house full of valuables?
What should we do with other people’s memories? Or better, what should we do with our own before we say good-bye?
Do you have some you’d like to share with us?
