Jerry Seinfeld, also a Baby Boomer, says it best. Halloween was all about “Get candy!” I won’t deny that my sisters and I loved the unsupervised night of door-to-door dashing to get as much candy as possible until the streetlights came on. No watch needed. Then the work began: we threw the goods down on the bedroom floor and traded for each other’s favorites. Get Smarties. Does anybody have chocolate Necco wafers? And those peanut butter candies in black or orange wrappers… the ones that were only good for pulling out tiny fillings – make a note not to go to that house the following year. Wasted time! Those evenings gave me a taste of the stock market and trading commodities!

I put away my gypsy costume many years ago, but the good memories remain. My dad had just one sibling, Mary Janet, and she passed in January of this year at the age of 93. A true matriarch of her family of six sons and one daughter, I was privileged to spend more time with her in the last 36 months. I am grateful that long before her death, my cousin Garry (the youngest of the six sons) and I began digitizing our family photos. Slow and steady wins the race when tackling the photo graveyard, so we set aside a few precious (and fun!) hours each week to sort through a dusty box from Aunt Jan’s basement. Weeks turned into months, and by the end of a year we had scanned and shared over 2,000 memories. As a graphic artist, I had all the right tools: the Ricoh Scan Snap ix2500 and the Kodak Slide N Scan. It was all about taking the time.

The stash wasn’t just about Aunt Jan’s immediate family – photos dated back to my parents’ college years. I discovered the photo on the left a few years ago (a decade after my parents’ passing), and it may be the happiest photo I’ve ever seen of Mom and Dad. While their wedding was a special day, Dad had just returned from Korea, thin and exhausted with malaria, landing him in the hospital shortly after they said, “I do”. I wish, in Mom’s own words, I could have heard her talk about this magnificent photo.

I didn’t grow up with brothers, so my cousins have always added a richness to my life. They’ve repeatedly told me, “You have all the photos!”, but closing down Aunt Jan’s home yielded box after box of 35 mm slides, film reels, and old Polaroids. And then there was the basement discovery: a wooden trunk with Dad’s name stenciled across the top. I suspect it was issued by the Army. Inside was an assortment of photographs and memorabilia, including grade-school report cards and government food-rationing paperwork from the Great Depression. My cousin Charlie touched base with me a few weeks after it was dropped at my apartment. His exact words were, “I hope you found some treasures in the trunk.”

It is a trunk of treats!

Slowly but surely, I am tackling the somewhat daunting task of digitizing hundreds more photos. I’m on a group chat with the cousins, and I have been posting just a few of the photos for group banter and unbridled teasing. As luck would have it, many of the slides I scanned in October were Halloween photographs from consecutive years. Those images transported my cousins back more than half a century to some of the happiest times of their childhood. There’s something pretty special about being able to relive those memories together. Even just hearing, “I remember that mask!” puts a spark of joy in the air.

There are so many services out there that will make magic out of your photo memories – you box up the slides and yellowing albums, and your originals and a flash drive come back to you. Although I prefer to do most of the scanning myself, I have used PhotoPanda with excellent results. They were particularly helpful with more than 100 black-and-white photographs taken in Korea. Not only did they scan the pictures, but they also provided color-corrected versions with improved contrast, bringing out details that might otherwise have been lost.

Here’s my advice: Find a starting point in your family. Have a plan and a schedule, not a ‘someday’. Creep on down to that scary basement stash or venture up into the cobweb-filled attic. Maybe your family photographs are tucked away in a forgotten box under a bed or overflowing closet. Wherever those memories are lurking, take the time to find them and preserve them for the next generation.

Key Notes:

• I bought the Kodak Slide N Scan on Facebook Marketplace for $50. (Well, Cousin Garry bought it for me and also took me out to lunch!) Check the secondary markets, but also take the time to watch a few YouTube videos to see if it is a good fit for you. It is also available on amazon.com.

• If you live in the Omaha area, DoSpace.org, part of the Omaha Public Library, has The Memory Lab. The Memory Lab gives users the ability to digitize, preserve, and convert old media — such as VHS tapes, cassettes, vinyl, and photos — into digital formats for free. You just need to reserve a time with a valid library card.

• I’ve read good things about EverPresent.com. If you have used them, or another reputable service, please comment below! I’d love to hear about your experiences.

• Family photographs become more than pictures—they become a way to reconnect generations and bring stories back to life.

On a Lighter Note:

• Cousin Garry is the shortest trick-or-treater pictured in the header above in the Zorro mask. He grew up to be a productive member of society and a life-saving respiratory therapist. He is also pictured below in the crib, with his not-so-happy older brothers. Some things are just too good not to share!

 

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