The cost of film processing in the 40's.

If you didn't know, my grandma passed away in 1994 and my grandpa passed away in this past October. So at the end of 2006, we spent many a days sorting through hundreds of boxes. During the sorting, I found an amazing array of history. One of which was this below: an envelope of photos and negatives with the cost of processing and reprints.

I can't believe it. If only the cost of an 11x14 today was $1.00, I would be getting every single one of my prints printed that size and our albums would be made for 11x14's and be the size of my dining room table. Things like this just really amaze me. I love history . . . I love learning about my past . . . I love that my grandma was kind enough to allow us to learn about her past. We are lucky. And I am thankful that she kept everything.

I am (unfortunately or fortunately - however you look at it?) following in her footsteps with keeping everything myself. I hope one day my children and grandchildren will appreciate my unableness to purge. One day they will see that there really was a reason for it.

I hope.

If you want to read more about life in the 40's, take a look at this, Grandma's Diary, a blog that I have in honor of my grandmother. I post her journal entries from 1945 about how in love she was with my grandpa and what she did on a daily basis - like shop, iron, sit and listen to the radio and day dream about her love. but It is really really interesting. Come take a look and see for yourself. I want people, related or not, to enjoy the entires. They not only say a lot about my family, but everyone's families, as we all derive from family living in the 40's, and how often do you have this chance to learn so much about what their world was like? What I hope most: that people appreciate what I am doing.

New designed header

I know you've seen my new header, it's no surprise. I decided to change it the other day when going through my grandparents old things. I think I've mentioned that they kept everything? Well, there was a box full full full of old cards from people over the years. Hundreds. Yes, they kept everything.

I found cards from my dad to my grandparents when he was 3, ones from friends when my grandma had her hysterctomy in the early 1970's, a card from my mom, dad and myself the Easter of 1976, which would have been when I was only a month old. It would have been probably my parents first card that they signed after I was born and that makes me think of signing our own first cards "Neil, Valerie and Noah". In a new parents life, it's pretty exciting to write a new person's name who is your own child attached to your own, especially when you never ever thought there you would be a family of 3. I still remember signing our names for the first time.

Then there were also cards from grandma and grandpa to each other during a 45 year time span, each seemed to be signed differently, "Honey, I'll always love you", "To many more beautiful years", "I love you more and more every year", and so on. There were hundreds of cards. While I pitched over half of them, I could not fathom throwing them all out. They were a piece of my family's history. And some of my favorites were the ones from the early 50's. Some had sparkles on them, some were very thin waxy tissue, some had the ugliest designs on the front, but some were just so . . . what's the word . . . retro . . . timeless? And the things the cards themselves said - even better - funny in most cases. I had a ball looking through them. And they inspired me to change my header.

This header I designed was using a card that I found from my dad and his siblings to their mom for Mother's Day. If only there was a frame on it with a woman taking pictures or a woman on her computer. Then that would be me to a "t". Here's another one that I really loved. I just adore vintage things. Aren't they great? Hope you're enjoying my new Purple Valley "look".