Day 2-Mud Covered Photos



Today I started in on a small garbage bag on photos. I say small because it was small in size, but the number of photos was nearly overwhelming. The photos were stored in a canvas bag, through the mud, I read "garden Tote" on the side. It had pockets on the inside and out. It was full of nearly a dozen sets of "picture developer" envelopes, 2 slip-in style pocket albums, and stacks (about 8 inches thick) of photos. I'm estimating 500 photos in this bag. They may be the worst out of the bunch. It looked to me like the bag had been full of water and the muddy sediment settled and landed right on the photos. (I just can't even imagine the heartbreak these people went through--to see all of their things FULL of mud.) I would grab a small section of photos and peel and swish in the sink to remove the chunks of mud. (You know, all those pdf things on CMC-Network don't even begin to come close to what I was actually doing.) They say "gently agitate", I would peel clay, in a one-inch thick ribbon, off the photos. They say, "gentle spray of water" I decided a foam craft brush worked great for cleaning the photos. It seemed so drastic at first, I kept thinking, don't touch the photos, but the only way I could get them clean is to use these steps.

Oh, I also found a receipt for some portraits done at Wal-Mart, so I called the number to see if perhaps they still had copies that could be ordered, or put on a disk. This happened to be the Wal-Mart in Chehalis that was flooded too. Dead End!
The counters are full again, llamas, Los Angeles Zoo, New Years eve parties, family portraits, even Jay Leno grace my kitchen this evening.
By dinnertime, I had to quit, no more space to spread them out and we needed dinner, I ziploc bagged what was left and put it in the fridge until tomorrow when I'll stack the dried ones and fill the counters again.


I've got about a dozen scanned so far.
Decided to: Just scan, not edit.
Sort some, matching faces and events.
Discuss with Mrs. "C" about what she wants to do with them when she is ready. I'd gladly do a power layout and get them safely in albums with journaling boxes for her to fill out.
Thanks so much to the ladies of CMC-Sharelist for their generosity. I am overwhelmed and greatly blessed by your offers of gifts and help.

Comments

Kathryn Thompson said…
This is an incredible task. I am amazed by what you're doing. It was so nice to meet you and your cute kids the other night.
December 17, 2007 at 12:07 AM
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