I used to take photos of my family, get them developed, and then place them in an album. Lots and lots of photos, enough to fill several albums. 

Here I am in college.

The photos seemed too good of a thing to keep to myself. So, a few years ago, I went through the collection to create albums for our six kids. I chose enough pictures so they would have a good feel for their childhood. The project, of course, left large holes in my albums.

Yesterday, I began rearranging the albums finally. I also opened a large box of photos taken during the last 10 years or so. I went through them, choosing which photos to keep and which to pass onto the kids. I found photos to send my sisters and brother.

In front of a slummy apartment building

The photos start when I was in college, there are only a couple, and go through the decades. I have photos from when I got married, twice, and had six kids: births and growing babies, home life, school plays, sports, graduations, weddings, vacations, birthdays, holidays, and other family get-togethers. There are group photos of classes and sports teams.

How well the children grew into young adults. How much fun it was to see Hank and I when we were younger and raising them.

Some of the people in the photos are now dead — dear relatives like my grandmother, Angela, and old friends like Bill and Win. There are pets we loved like Amos, Sheena, Sadie, and Louis.

One album shows, photo by photo,  the construction of our first home back in Worthington, from clearing a spot on the wooded land to its finish.

It will likely take me another weekend to finish the albums and send off packets of photos to the kids.

This project brings up another issue. Things got out of hand quickly when it became too easy to take an image with a digital camera or smartphone. I have so many photos on discs and my computer that haven’t made it to print and an album. But I plan to change that.