Today, I'm talking about photos instead of books.
I spent the last two days going through three huge boxes of old photos from the pre-computer days with the original intent of scanning them to my computer.
Instead I threw the vast majority into the recycle bin.
Why?
- The photos were not the greatest quality as I didn’t have a good camera in those days.
- I’m not and never have been a good photographer. I blame this on poor eyesight and (more accurately) lack of real interest.
- I had three questions as I looked through the pictures. Where is this? What is this? Who is this? If I couldn’t answer even one of those questions, I junked the photo.
- Very often a fourth question came to mind. Why ever did I take this picture? And to the junk pile it went.
What did I keep?
- Pictures of family, but only the ones of people I recognized and remembered. Why, oh why didn’t someone label those old photos, I asked myself as I leafed through them. And then, in the quandary of deciding what to do with each one, this question popped into mind. What, I thought, is the point of keeping a picture of some relative I don’t remember? How would I explain who he or she was to my granddaughter? And why would my granddaughter care about a stranger?
Will I regret the great “cull?”
- I don’t think so.
- I hope not.
Did I make a huge mistake?
What do you think?
What have you done with your old photos?