Looking on the 'Positive' Side.

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My sister has been custodian of the ‘family-photo archives’

since dear old Dad left us in 1999.

Being eleven years younger than I,

she was at a loss to identify many of the relatives and friends in the old photographs.

So, they have been delivered to ‘your truly’ for an identity check!

Not a dozen or so.

Not a hundred or so in a shoebox.

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But three great big boxes.

One box contains our Grandfathers photos, the second, Fathers

and the third a load of photographs rescued from our father’s sister, our aunty Gladys.

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This is going to take me months and months I can see, but it is a ‘labour of love’ and I am grateful that these were saved for future generations.

I wouldn’t mind betting there are going to be many, many sepia faces of tightly laced great-aunties that I do not recognise either.

My paternal Grandfather was a chemist and a photographer. I still have one of his old cameras. My Father was also a keen amateur and I still have one of his old cameras. So you see there are in addition to these old prints, hundreds and hundreds of negatives.

I did a blog way back in March 2009 about the old cameras.

In order to view and maybe print from these, I have lashed out on a new scanner.

My Canon printer/scanner only does positive copies, but this Hewlett Packard model has carriers for slides and negatives, in both colour and B&W in 35mm, and many other larger formats.

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So this week I have been scanning and viewing

some of my pictures from over fifty years ago.

There was Grandfather in his chemists shop.

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There was my Mother, astride a pony, on holiday in Devon. - 1935

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Shock and horror! Mom and Dad in drag? - 1937

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Bernard’s bare bum! - 1943

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And there I was in 1961 on holiday with my first (serious) girlfriend.

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And no, - it didn’t last.

But at least the negatives, photographs and the memories do.

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