Having been an iPhone owner for a whopping 9 days now, I already can’t imagine going back to lugging around my bulky, heavy camera when I have high-quality photo and video capabilities right in my phone. Especially considering how easy it is to instantly upload photos and videos to Facebook.
With digital camera technology to blame, parents today have more photo memories of their kids than they know what to do with. Most moms and dads I know frequently lament how they have no printed photos of their kids, and how that’s in stark contrast to how it was when they were little.
I still remember my very first camera – the Kodak Disk. My mom would say to me, “You can take whatever pictures you want, but keep in mind you are limited to 15 total. Use those 15 wisely.”
She’d buy me a new disk of film whenever we had an upcoming vacation or holiday, and it never failed that I used up 13 of the 15 photos within the first 72 hours of slapping the film into my camera. As soon as the special event had passed, my mom would so kindly take my disk to the local Wolf Camera store, and of those 15 photos, probably about 5 were anything worth keeping.
As I aged (and had a better handle on what actually was photo-worthy), cameras improved. By the time high school came, my parents had albums full of dance recitals, soccer games, Homecomings and proms. Then enter college – and the infamous sorority and fraternity date parties – and my photo books suddenly were overflowing with pictures emblazoned with gold foil Greek letters, followed by the words “Formal” and “Kamanawanalaya.” These photos never amounted to much more than obnoxious smiles and I’m-going-to-hug-you-so-hard-we’ll-look-like-conjoined-twins poses (always with arms reaching out to the side or straight down to the ground, in an effort to hide our cups of beer from the camera).
When I moved out and got married, my mom sent along boxes full of albums. Flash-forward 10 years and 2 kids later, and I might open those albums from time to time to reminisce or if I get together with old friends. But – really – what am I supposed to do with all those old memories?
And boyfriends?
And dances?
And bar crawls?
And spring break trips?
What if my kids were to find them?
Those old boyfriends aren’t daddy, and they’ve never once seen me as glammed up as I got every Friday and Saturday night to go out.
And what about all those photos from friends’ 21st birthday parties? Like the time the girls who lived in that off-campus house ordered a stripper named Shawn Til Dawn for their roommate’s birthday. I was the sorority president at the time, so after the Birthday Girl was good and embarrassed, *I* became the focus of the crowd.
Chanting my name and throwing money in my direction, the next thing I knew, I had my legs wrapped around the waist of an overly-tanned, overly-”stuffed” man wearing nothing but a G-string.
What should a mom do about memories (and photo proof) like that?
Thank goodness iPhones and Facebook weren’t invented yet.
Do you still have photos from high school and college? Have you thought about what you will and won’t let your kids see?
I remember Kamanawanalaya, and am sure I still have a pic that you got for me in one of my keepsake boxes. I’m also sure there are a few pictures of you with one of those old boyfriends in my family’s photo albums going to those dances.
I too struggle with what to keep, especially now that we are sorting through everything after moving and deciding what is worth keeping in the new house. I’ve done several purges over the past decade or so…but still shudder at the thought of Andrew finding some of *those* pictures!
So ironic to read this post right now. Just the other day a guest post that I did about an experience in college had me feeling all notalgic and looking through my old photo albums from back then.
And just like you said in your post, the thought went through my mind that my kid CANNOT see these pictures! Tons of photos of me and my friends drunk, alcohol visible… The best of times for sure, but not stuff I want my son to see.
As for pics of old boyfriends, I purged them a long time ago. I didn’t want to see those anymore.
I do have some of these photos but I really never had a camera. I wasn’t really into taking pictures either. Now once I got my first digital camera, 6 years ago, I have been a picture taking fool. I can’t even imagine what life would be like if we had digital cameras and facebook back in high school and college. My mom would kill me for some of the stuff that I did. My mom made me a scrapbook in college with some pictures of old boyfriends and stuff in it. It is weird to look back at that now. It will be a long time if and when my kids ever see some of those party pictures.
Pictures are weird, aren’t they?
I think it’s different when you have daughters.
My boys,,,they really don’t care too much to see what mama was like.
Oh my gosh Liz, you are hilarious! Yeah, thanks goodness there were no iphones or FB back then
BTW, you jumped on the iphone bandwagon? Seriously…I’ve got to get me one of those!
I think about this sometimes. I know I could never have handled facebook at 15, 16 or even 17 years old.
I am amazed at my two young adult children’s ability to act, for the most part, with dignity and compassion on their accounts.
thank GOD
that is all
I am very thankful as well. I had a “budding actress” inside. Anytime we “borrowed” a video camera for some special occasion I could be found making a complete fool of myself….oh the drama!! I can’t imagine what I would have done with a video camera at the tip of my finger tips!! ha ha The toilet turd pictures are my personal favorite. I have no idea what would have ever possessed me to take those. ..and better yet…to put them in my album.
Oooh, you as a budding actress! Love it! And I never would have guessed!
Oh my do we have loads of photos. Plastic bins full along with tons of photo albums that we keep moving from place to place. One in a while I go through them and organize them, thinking I will get it all sorted, then I get sidetracked and it is all over. Now I cringe at the thought of a computer crashing and losing all of my not-backed up pictures…luckily most of them are saved on FB too
Oh geez, I don’t have any stripper photos, but plenty where I’m good and hammered. I’ve never thought about what I’ll do with them! I’m sure I’d let them see mine, but I would probably hide the stripper ones if I were you!! lol
I have BOXES full of old photos. And albums of the college days. I kept the albums sort of “clean” for my future kids to see. I am not ashamed to have my son see those pictures of me. He knows me. He knows I am both a crazy lady and responsible.
Just like back then.
I just spend more time with coffee than with kegs these days.
I have no evidence of any of my early shenanigans. How I escaped that, I’ll never know!
I have a huge ole’ pile of photos to scan from the younger much hotter angry julie to scan…and you know my elementary school classmate and fellow girl scout, Fergie, well I gotz those photos too…
So why have you been keeping those hidden all this time?!?!
Ha! I have lots of incriminating photos too and my friends and I always say THANK GOD Facebook and Twitter weren’t around back then! haha.
I tossed the ones I never want to have to explain to anyone. Especially my kids.
I need my iPhone. I can’t get until October- damn Verizon contract. And yes, I have TONS of high school and college pictures- TONS!!!!!
I have had my Iphone for a month. I can’t remember how I lived without it.
My old photo albums are in a box in the attic. I can’t throw them away, and I can’t put them on a shelf. So in the attic they sit.
I had a friend who would through everything (and I mean every photo, every letter, every gift) away after every break-up. I’m suddenly jealous of her.