I’m done now except for some miscellaneous paperwork and two final utility bills. I sold my father’s house after a 3 1/2 month purge. I have bins and boxes in my kitchen waiting to go down to the basement.
I have been through the majority of my father’s slides, and I found some interesting stuff - views of the house where I grew up right after we first moved in in 1955, when I was 5 years old. The house was new construction and it had beautiful wood floors which were promptly all covered with carpeting. There was absolutely zero clutter in the house and it was sparsely furnished. There is a shot of my mother in her apron with the front door open like she is greeting someone. I have a scanner, so I’m going to have to use it pretty soon and get some of these slides on my computer.
Then there are the piles of old photo albums. I already emptied the newer photo albums and categorized the loose photos, wrapped them in paper and put them in a drawer, but I have a few really old albums with photos from the 30’s and 40’s that I have to decide what to do with. There are entire albums where I don’t recognize anyone and the photos are not labeled. I imagine I will throw some of those out.
Which brings me to the heavily cardboard-backed professional studio photographs from the 1920’s on forward. Some of these are beautiful photographs, professionally posed, taken in a studio in nice photo holders or heavy-duty cardboard photo albums. Not quite sure what to do with these. I have a 2nd cousin in Minnesota whose grandparents (my great uncle Alfred and his wife Clara) are pictured in what looks like a wedding portrait. I talked to this cousin on the phone shortly after my father passed away and I told him I would send him a copy of that photo, so I should get to that.
The fact is, I’m tired. It’s been an intense 4 months (my father died on May 2 - exactly 4 months ago tomorrow). The photos may have to wait for a few more weeks while I recover from the sorting, shifting, sifting, throwing and moving. I need to decompress for a while - try and get back to my own photography which had gone by the wayside the last few weeks. I’m also purging my house. No way am I leaving as much stuff for my kids as my dad left - except for the photos. I will be leaving lots of photos.
