“Memories are the treasures that we keep locked deep within the storehouse of our souls, to keep our hearts warm when we are lonely.” Becky Aligada

Is an event in your life a memory if you don’t remember it? Or does the fact you don’t remember it preclude it from being a memory? But if you were there and have actual, physical proof you were there…isn’t it a memory? A memory you don’t remember?

Is that deep, or what? Oh, yeah, it’s deep! About knee-deep in…

I was looking through all the old family photos the other day. I have to scan them all again, you see. When I digitized them, the first time, it was with a not-so-great scanner. When I was looking for a suitable pictorial subject for a tutorial, I noticed some of the older photos had a very noticeable banding problem. Then I noticed I’d only scanned them at 200 dpi. The original scanning was done years ago, not with the intent to restore, but to save. So, with all my acquired knowledge of scanning, and…stuff, I knew it was time to do a complete rescan of the entire collection.

Going through one particular box full of Polaroids from the “Janine-the Early Years” collection, I was struck by two indisputable truths, one being that Polaroids, overall, hold up better than almost any other photographic form I’ve seen, and the other being I was totally all kinds of cute! Okay, to give props where due, my sister, brother and I were all a bunch of cute kids, but I was so definitely the cutest. Oh, and Mom loved me best. Still does. So there.

Moving on…

One particular batch of Polaroids dealt with the event of my first Christmas. We were living on 18th Avenue in West Seattle – I know that because my Mom is always saying “Remember the house on 18th Avenue?”, to which I always answer “No”, because I don’t. Because I was a baby. Likewise, I don’t remember my first Christmas, having been only six months old. But judging from these pictures, it must have been all kinds of fun! Especially for those older kids! I’m not sure if my brother Mark remembers the occasion or not. Probably not. He wasn’t even two, yet. Three months shy. I’ll have to ask him…

Thanks for indulging me in my little trip down I have no memory of that lane! Do you have memories you don’t remember?

Tags: Memories, Photographs