Memory Lane

6/28/10 Update: I wrote this post on my own initiative, because I was really happy with the results of my scans.  I mention that only because the folks at ScanCafe came across this post and linked to it on Twitter.  That’s fine with me, but I didn’t want anyone to think this post was somehow sponsored.  Though if ScanCafe wants to give me a discount on a future order, I have a couple shoeboxes of old prints I was planning to send them…

While I was at my parents’ house in Charlotte for Christmas, I pulled about 10 boxes of old slides down from the dusty shelves of one of the bedroom closets. After taking them all out of the carousels and packing them up snugly in a box, I sent them off to ScanCafe, a company that will scan old photos and slides for you.

Me circa 1979

I was slightly nervous about this, and my parents even more so — the thought of sending all these slides, some of them as much as 30 years old, into the void was intimidating. But they’d been sitting in boxes, untouched for years. And MAN, I really wanted those photos. And digitizing is even better, since we can all have our own copy.

At my grandparents’ (mom’s side) mobile home in Myrtle Beach, circa 1979

So off the box went in early January to California, where the company processed the order and sent the slides on to India. INDIA!! Our cherished memories were going halfway around the world, and what if they disappeared??

Mom circa 1979 (cool jacket, Mom!)

But realistically, none of us were ever going to take the time to scan them. And even if I did, the task would probably never be completed. At least not in THIS decade. So they would have likely remained in their boxes up on the top shelf of the closet for another 30 years.

Grandmother (dad’s mom) near the barn in Pennsylvania

Yesterday, almost a month after the slides were put into the hands of UPS and ScanCafe, I got an email telling me the scans are online!

Pumpkin Carving with Dad, circa 1979

I get to flip through them all, and mark the ones that I don’t want to keep, but who am I kidding, I’m keeping them ALL. Then after finalizing the order, they ship the originals back with the scans on DVD.

The twins, looking surprised

Unfortunately for Katie and Brian, the slides are mostly of me, then David and me. My dad appears to have given up the slide hobby shortly after the twins were born.

David, Brian, Katie, and Me circa 1983

But man, the results are SO AWESOME. I almost broke into tears when I started looking through them — all these awesome photos, all these memories of my childhood. I’m so, so happy we decided to ship them off for scanning, and I’m so, so happy that we’re all going to have these photos to keep. I’ll hold final judgment until we have the DVDs in hand, but at the moment this is looking like the best $277 I’ve ever spent.