Last year I scanned over 500 old family photos that my parents had. There are many more for me to go through, but I developed a real love of these old photos. I think they're amazing.

Here's a few of mine, and I'd love to see what all you guys have (and more from Andy--especially with the colorful pants!)


My grandparents and a great aunt. This photo was taken by my grandpa Harry. I love how he framed it. All wrong, yet so right.



My mom's kindergarten class. Classic. She's the one with her hand to her mouth under the arrow.



Me and my sister:




My parents during their 3 month courtship:




and finally, my parents' wedding day (love the street sign)

scanned a few photos. My brother has most of them and won't give them up.
Also I lost a bunch of old photos in a hurricane. I can give this more attention, though. I have one in a frame, don't think I can get those out to scan of Older pictures. Here is one to start with. My mother was told by her mother that she was a very ugly child, not the blond beauty she was hoping for, this is my mother as a child. Pity what parents can do, and I was not perfect as a parent either.



Mary Elizabeth Spencer
spent her whole life in the Detroit/Birmingham Michigan area
she died in 1987, I miss her a lot.

As she aged, her hair turned salt and pepper. She didn't like that, after a few years of it, she had it dyed blond. She kept it that way til she died. She was 75 when she died of an asthma attack.
She and I were very different, very different, but we were very close in the years before her death. This last is her final portrait photo. She must have been my age, or younger.



Mary Spencer Hershey

(at that point)

Originally Posted by ginger_55 My mother was told by her mother that she was a very ugly child, not the blond beauty she was hoping for, this is my mother as a child. Pity what parents can do

It is a pity. She was a beautiful child. Thanks for the story and the pictures.

There are only a few old photos I have scanned, and I'd like to show what a friend of mine did via PS to bring back the 'oomph'. When I was young I was in love with horses, as many young girls are. Reading much Marguerite Henry, I had decided I wanted an Arabian. My mother, after making me work very hard with an evil pony and an old QH mare in the local shows, finally got me my first Arab.

I took him as far as I could such a horse, but my trainer told her, "Digna, Marina needs a real show horse. If she has the right horse, she can go national." He'd already found the perfect horse, a little stallion, a chocolatey liver chestnut, who was sized perfectly for my 5' 2" (with every other horse I'd ever shown, my feet hit about halfway down their belly). The following photo is my very first show with Nashan.

He was a testy bugger, being uncut, and BOY did you have to handle that horse differently from any mare or gelding, but when he was "on", he was RIGHT on! And yes, I went national with him.

This is the original shot, as it appears in print today...

This is what my friend John (a.k.a. Sharkky) did with Photoshop. He's become quite the avid photog, as well as being a great teacher and just all around good guy.

My grandfather, Papai, in 1938, in front of his "trainer" plane, an A-17A, while he was attending college. He received his degrees from Virginia Polytech in aeronautical and electrical engineering, and was slated to go to Pearl Harbor in 1939. However, my mother came along, and his mother insisted he not go. He remained and took over the family business as a sugar cane farmer.
His best friend from school did go, and died there in the Japanese attack. Papai is now 88, and I love him and my grandmother dearly. They still live in the house he was born in, in San German, Puerto Rico, just the next plaza over from the oldest church in the Western Hemisphere - Porta Ceoli (sp?).

This is a picture my mother took of me as a child. This was a friends old "jalopy", as my mother called it on the inscription on the back.


This is me (on the right) and my Aunt Loretta reading the Sunday funnies in the garden swing.


This is my fathers unit having a picnic on Normandy Beach during WWII. There are a couple of local kids and their dog right in front.


Another one of the picnic. They seem to be doing a Greek dance in the background and there's a guy zipping up his pants in the foreground - is he being descreet behind that rock?

Here's one more of my father with his new car. That's my cousin beside the car and her father in the rear. I just love those old cars.
Snappy

Originally Posted by Seamaiden My grandfather, Papai, in 1938, in front of his "trainer" plane, an A-17A, while he was attending college. He received his degrees from Virginia Polytech in aeronautical and electrical engineering, and was slated to go to Pearl Harbor in 1939. However, my mother came along, and his mother insisted he not go. He remained and took over the family business as a sugar cane farmer. His best friend from school did go, and died there in the Japanese attack. Papai is now 88, and I love him and my grandmother dearly. They still live in the house he was born in, in San German, Puerto Rico, just the next plaza over from the oldest church in the Western Hemisphere - Porta Ceoli (sp?).

Your pic, and the story, are priceless. Thanks for sharing! And a big Woo-Hoo to Puerto Rico!

Originally Posted by DavidTO and finally, my parents' wedding day (love the street sign)

Perfect pic indeed. Their expressions, the sign and the entire crispness of the photo are superb!

I put this scan up before. It is one of my earliest 35mm pictures. It was taken with the, made in Germany, Kodak Retina in 1962 or maybe 1963.

I want to post two more scans, for my grandfathers.

First is Grandpa Harry, who was a tough man. He dropped out of the 5th grade to support his family and to avoid having to return to the orphanage (his mother couldn't afford to raise all the kids after her husband died), and later owned a cigar stand on Maiden Lane in the Wall Street District.

This photo is awesome for so many reasons...




Next is Granpa Ben. He's on the left, his mother Annie in the middle and his brother Henry on the right. Ben was a folklorist who wrote 20+ books on folklore and revolutionized the field. His brother earned his living as a fine artist on the left bank in Paris in the 20's. They were first cousins with the Gershwins. An amazing generation, and one that my mother always told me I had to live up to. Needless to say, I haven't lived up to their legacy...

David, I LOVE your pictures, I love old photos, and so many of them aren't so good in the first place. Yours, or whoever it was who took them, show an eye for capturing that special moment in time. A perfect juxtaposition.

Snapapple, I can't see any piccies or links! Help me to see, I want to see, please? (I'm sure I've done something wrong, but I just can't find any links.)

Ginger, cmr, I love your pix.. heck, I love history, and that's what these are, yes? I really hope more people add much more WITH stories!

Mr. Perez (yes?), it's been interesting learning more about my grandparents, especially my grandfather. I only recently learned about his degrees, how close I came to not being, how he ended up a sugar cane farmer. Years ago my grandmother gave me that photo of Papai in front of the plane, and he couldn't remember what it was. I posted the shots I had on (of all places) an aquarium forum, and one of the members is a WWII plane buff who has many contacts with old pilots and the like. They LOVED faxing this thing back and forth, going through all their books, and spent about three days - chatting across the nation - finally coming to the determination as to what plane it actually was. I'd thought it was a Texan initially, but found many significant design differences. I was most happy, though, to hear of how it sparked these men, and how the efforts of so many people across the country gave little old me the answer I sought. I still haven't ever found a model of this plane for Papai, I would dearly love to give him one.

It's amazing how we can come together, isn't it? I am amazed every day at the people I've met because of this internet thing! I'm in the process of getting ready to move in with, and next year marry, a man I met and fell deeply in love online. (We met on a reefing forum - yes, I am incorrigible.)

Originally Posted by DavidTO Last year I scanned over 500 old family photos that my parents had. There are many more for me to go through, but I developed a real love of these old photos. I think they're amazing. I'd love to see what all you guys have (and more from Andy--especially with the colorful pants!

I started in digital photography in 2000 when I bought a Polaroid scanner to scan my fathers slides from the 1940s and 1950s. It has been quite an educational experience along the way. Some of the slides were in very poor condition. This is a picture of my mother and I in 1945 - Can anyone identify the car?

I'm not able to see yours or Snapapple's shots. I tried cutting and pasting your URL, and still no photo. Very strange.

Originally Posted by wxwax I'm not able to see yours or Snapapple's shots. I tried cutting and pasting your URL, and still no photo. Very strange.

Well, for Pathfinder the URL worked if I got it in his reply. Two things I noticed wrong with his post (I think they're wrong) 1- he has a space after the IMG tag and before the URL, and 2- the IMG tag is lower case.

Snapapple, I have no idea what the problem might be.

Update: once I loaded Pathfinder's image manually, it shows up on the page. Must be in my cache.

I also was able to get snapapple's the same way, and they too show up on my page.

But it is odd that I have to go into reply mode, grab the URL and drag it manually to my location thingy.

Originally Posted by DavidTO Well, for Pathfinder the URL worked if I got it in his reply. Two things I noticed wrong with his post (I think they're wrong) 1- he has a space after the IMG tag and before the URL, and 2- the IMG tag is lower case. Snapapple, I have no idea what the problem might be. Update: once I loaded Pathfinder's image manually, it shows up on the page. Must be in my cache. I also was able to get snapapple's the same way, and they too show up on my page. But it is odd that I have to go into reply mode, grab the URL and drag it manually to my location thingy.

I can see the picture on my screen in the original text box just fine. Hmmmmm... This happens to me with other poster's images sometimes tho. Not sure why - like you I can sometimes find them in the reply box.

Originally Posted by DavidTO Well, for Pathfinder the URL worked if I got it in his reply. Two things I noticed wrong with his post (I think they're wrong) 1- he has a space after the IMG tag and before the URL, and 2- the IMG tag is lower case.

I fixed the first, and the second is the way it often is. I changed it anyway. Still no piccie. All I get is a blank page when I cut and paste the URL in my browser.

cool shots, david, and a great idea! when my mom died in 2003, i sorted thru over 15,000 photos from the entire extended family , and then scanned 1500 into an online family archives, which was the primary reason i got involved with smugmug in the first place......



from 1900, a great-great-great grandfather (from sweden)


this was a letter my dad wrote to the commissioner of baseball in 1937, with his baseball all-star pics.



look how close he was to 100% !

do you have "external links" turned on for this gallery that these pics are in?

Originally Posted by snapapple This is a picture my mother took of me as a child. This was a friends old "jalopy", as my mother called it on the inscription on the back. This is me (on the right) and my Aunt Loretta reading the Sunday funnies in the garden swing. This is my fathers unit having a picnic on Normandy Beach during WWII. There are a couple of local kids and their dog right in front. Another one of the picnic. They seem to be doing a Greek dance in the background and there's a guy zipping up his pants in the foreground - is he being descreet behind that rock?

Pismo Beach vacation, sometime around 1978