I find wintertime the best time to get on top of my plans and goals. January and February are typically the two coldest and snowiest months where I live. Leaving the house can be a chore and a half when it snows: Getting in and out of snowsuits and boots, shoveling the stuff, battling drifts and ice, shoveling more snow, fixing property damage caused by overcaffeinated snowplow drivers, shoveling even more snow. Bah! I’m retired. I’m staying home and warm. I don’t need the cold cramping my muscles and flaring up my old football injury.
Staying in was a luxury I never had until now. Now, I can sip tea and write. Or sip tea and make art. Or sip tea and read some blogs, comment, and hit the LIKE button. Let’s face it: Wintertime is the best time to sip tea and get those projects done.
An ongoing project is getting rid of clutter and rearranging my living space. Even though the books on my To Do list beg me to write them, clutter grows like weeds if you keep putting it off until tomorrow.
My wife and I used to keep our photographs stored in albums kept on bookshelves. Over the years, the number of albums grew and the photos inside the old ones kept falling out. So, we began tossing our photos into empty shoeboxes instead. Now we have 30+ years of unlabeled shoeboxes stacked in storage.
This week’s goal was to finish labeling those boxes. But you can stop the progress of anything when you begin looking at photos. All those moments of yesteryear captured on paper, refreshing memories of a past filled with both good and not so good times.
Today, I peeked into my past when I should have been labeling. I was a shutterbug most of my life, starting when I was ten and lasting for almost fifty years. My wife was too, which was an attraction back when we were dating. Now, her phone is her camera. I don’t use the camera on my phone. My cameras are cameras, nothing more.
There was a large chunk of time when I always had my cameras with me, especially when I was an avid outdoorsman, wildlife artist and photographer, and often the bearer of flannel shirts and a bearded face.
I look at those photos and see the styles I wore, and I recall my favorite foods, movies, TV, and music during those times, and I see how much I’ve changed. Not just in looks, but in taste as well. My past selves are strangers to who I am now.
The two photos shown below are from my twelfth birthday, celebrated with my mom whose birthday fell three days after mine. She was 30. And she decorated our cakes. She had many talents.
One of my birthday gifts was a Kodak Instamatic camera. My parents showed me how to load film into it, and they used it to take the pair of family photos I’m sharing.
Thanks for reading.
That’s all for now. Peace and love to all my readers.
Steve, 2/12/2023
This post “Reminiscing, part 1” copyright © 2023 Steven Leo Campbell at stevecampbellcreations.com – All rights reserved.
Steve Campbell Creations 
I read this when you published it but got distracted at work and never came back. It is such a chore doing that. I’ve scanned a lot of our old ones so I can back them up just in case something happens to the originals…but nothing beats those 70s photos…I love the look of them.
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Yep, scanning to digital is slow, and a chore for a month of rainy (or snowy) days. But it’s good to have them backed up. And you’re so right about the look of film that digital lacks. Sure, there are apps that mimic the look, but they still miss the mark. Original is always better.
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I totally agree…the come close but never the same. It’s the same with music effects I use…nothing is going to simulate a Fender Twin perfectly except a Fender Twin.
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