Photo Albums
Of Years Gone By
1956-1973  & 1996-2005
Family Photo Albums have been around for a long time.  Pa can remember the old 'black books'.  Some were bound and others you could add pages as required.  Many folks pasted the pictures, others used scotch tape, other used fancy corners.  Now and then when visitor came -- out would come the 'black book'.  It was almost always hard to look at the pictures, cause when two or more are looking the interests are not the same.  But, then if ya look alone, there is no one to question or comment.

The 'black books' for the most are no longer.  Now one can get fancy albums with plastic pages, all ya have to do is insert the picture.  Back  in the 'good ole days' the roll of film would be developed and selected prints put in the 'black book'. The remainder of the prints would go into a box and/or bottom of a desk drawer -- most likely never to be seen again.  Even the  pictures in the 'black book' presented a major problem -- they could not be easily shared.  Family photos are not much good unless they are shared with other family members.

This Smith Family is not much different.  We have a couple of old 'black books'  from many many years ago, and fancy Albums with plastic pages.  

The state of the Albums are much dependent on the nature of the Family Photography as time progress.  Of course, both Ma and Pa each had a 'box camera' -- pictures from these went in the old 'black book' or box.

1956-1973 --When we became a Family at Redstone Arsenal,  Ft Bliss, and our tour in Italy we had 8mm Home Movies and 35mm Slides.  It is sort of hard to put movies and slides into an Album.  They are put in special boxes for long term storage.  They were shared by 'projection' on a white screen or wall. Sometimes the 'viewing' was boring and confused during short family visits.  The 35mm Slides were discovered, scanned and digitized -- A major project for the Winter of 2005.  The sort criteria was date of processing, per the date on the slide.  The 8mm conversion to DVD's is an on going project - estimated time remaining - one year.

1973-1996 -- Somehow, the means of photography for that  period is not remembered.  However, there are many a Photo Album, no -  not the 'black books', but the fancy kind setting on the shelve to the right of the fireplace.  We get them out every now and them to have a look.  The Grand Kids like to look at them - have no idea what they are laughing about as the do.

1996-Present --  The method of photography during this period was  35mm film (prints - slides were old fashion) and later several nice digital cameras.  During the film days when the film was processed we also got the extra 'pictures on disk'  A good share of these pictures are not in the 'Book Albums' but are on the computer hard drive or on CD's.  In someways these pictures are much like the 'ones of old' that are in boxes and/or the bottom of a desk drawer.

The digitized images of the periods 1956-1973 and  1996-2005 have been organized and placed in Digital Albums.  They are present on this disk and are available for your enjoyment.  There are some 10,078 pictures, thus there should be a good one someplace.  

Pay close attention to the navigation arrows, if they are solid - that means there are more.  Also the type of Digital Album selected provides for 'mouse over viewing' -- no clicking required.  Some of the pictures contain 'comments'.  These comments if present can be seen by clicking on the thumbnail.  The name '980217' means 17 Feb 1998.  

It is hoped that this presentation will allow us to share our 'family photos'.  Perhaps, sometime in the future Pa will digitize the pictures from the period 1973-1996.  Of course, should you like to see them, the coffee pot on, your visit is welcome.  In the meantime please enjoy these pictures from days gone by.  At least, perhaps Pa can place you almost like you had a 'black book', setting in a chair, turning the pages, and perhaps - like the Grand Children laughing at a picture or two.