On July 18th my parents will be celebrating 50 years of marriage. Consecutive and to each other, even. It's an incredible thing, rarely heard of nowadays.
As part of a gift for them, my sister and I conspired. She sneaked out a box load of old slides ("color transparencies" the boxes proclaim) and shipped them here to me two states away. When I have a few moments, I scan as many slides as I can, upload them to the computer, and name and organize them as best as I can. The ultimate goal here is to get all of them digitized, to put them onto an photo memory card and stick them into one of those silly little digital frames. When they open it up, the photos will be scrolling away. Teary eyes all around. I will also burn all the photos on CD for them and for my five siblings.
I must confess, this project has brought me a lot of happiness. Who wouldn't love unearthing treasures such as this:
My parents on their wedding day. Unfortunately, many of the slides have degraded or has some mildew on them after being shelved in various drawers for a few decades. Is there any way to clean slides?
Mom and Dad shot slides primarily before I was born, so I haven't found any of me. This can be a good thing, since I can taunt my brothers and sisters with certain pictures without fear of retaliation.
My oldest brother Greg, the singing cowboy and my oldest sister Mary, giving her unsolicited opinion on his performance.
My sister Sue's reaction to her first sip of beer. Check out those eyes.
Here, my mom is many years younger than I am now. By about 14 years, actually. Yet, she looks older. Were people of that generation just born looking 40? Leafing through their high school yearbooks, I think so.
I'm having too much fun with this. Thought I'd pass on the gift idea. Though most of you probably don't remember slides, even in 5th grade science class.
And if you see these two little lovebirds:
then remember to tell them Happy Anniversary. Just don't blow my surprise.
My parents on their wedding day. Unfortunately, many of the slides have degraded or has some mildew on them after being shelved in various drawers for a few decades. Is there any way to clean slides?
My oldest brother Greg, the singing cowboy and my oldest sister Mary, giving her unsolicited opinion on his performance.
My sister Sue's reaction to her first sip of beer. Check out those eyes.
Comments (13)
Aww! That's a cute idea. Get them slides digitized! Oh, and congrats to them.
That is an awesome gift idea. Congratulations to them. I love slides; I should dig through ours sometime.
@TastyAnonymity - Thank you! They are so thrilled for this anniversary. Smell the party planning? Thanks for the rec, too. It's great to see you. Love the prof pic [=
@wherethefishlives - Do it! It can be really fun to see what you stumble upon. We used to have a Friday night movie and slide night. My dad had one of those old silent movie cameras and we'd project movies on the wall, doing our own version of MST3K (though predating the show by decades). Thanks so much for the rec.
That IS a good idea.
My in-laws looked around 40 in their college yearbook. They're both in their 50s now, but they really don't look that much different now than they did then.
At my Grandma's funeral visitation there was a picture show of her and the family. Everyone loved it including the picture of fat me with long hair.
what a fabulous idea. i made a slideshow of old pictures for my FIL's memorial service with "amazing grace" playing as the pictures faded in and out. i think updating and preserving photos is an excellent gift idea.
i'm slightly saddened that "first sip of beer" did not seem to display on my screen... o.o
how sweet : )
Nice plan - only if this was for my mother, I couldn't post about it.... She is very computer/internet savvy, having xanga and facebook accounts!
Aww... how sweet. My sis made a dvd of old photos, added with music too.
oh that is so sweet! what fantastic pictures
good idea! i doubt my parents have slides, but i might have to steal the principle for future use!
That's awesome, Maureen! How special and how very thoughtful of you guys! Both sets of my grandparents made it 50+ years together, and you're right - that just doesn't happen as much anymore.
What a great idea to commemorate such a special event. :)
AW theyre so cute ^_^
@danlang - Thanks, love. I was going to work on a DVD for it this weekend, but Christian did something to my Windows Movie Maker and now it went kablooey.