I absolutely love looking at old photos. I could spend hours days looking at vintage pictures of my family, friends, and self from years past. Seeing pictures of my parents when they were my age, of my husband and his brother before I knew them, or of me and my friends at elementary birthday parties can put a smile on my face like few other things can.

I spent some time on Halloween night looking at old pictures of my sister and I in childhood Halloween costumes. A kitten, a clown, a doctor….all kinds of hilariousness. I love how the memories come flooding back when you see an old photo. For instance, I had totally forgotten about the “pumpkin flashlights” we used to get every year to carry while trick-or-treating, and how my dad always set up a card table in our dining room to hold the bowl of candy to be passed out and to display all the pumpkins we had carved.

And then the next day my dad sent me this gem of a memory….

Seriously! People don’t keep pictures like that any more! Think about it…..using digital cameras these days, that photo would have been deleted in a heart beat. My eyes are closed, my sister is looking a different direction, and my dad’s arm is in the way. No way would that have been saved, let alone printed out! But my dad loves this picture so much he has it hanging in a frame on his office wall. And that’s part of what makes old photos so charming. You never knew what you were going to get until you picked up your pictures.

Last night after all the extended family had left from G’s grandma’s 70th birthday fiesta, we pulled out a big box of old pictures and spent a couple hours looking, laughing and reminiscing. Pictures of his parents as kids and young adults, G & his brother as babies, through elementary, and high school, and pictures of vacations, weekend projects and family gatherings. I couldn’t get enough!

I still like to use a disposable camera from time to time. Sure, it doesn’t take half as good of a picture as my little iPhone, and if you forget to “charge” the flash you end up wasting a picture. And people literally look at you like you’re INSANE if you ask them to take your picture and hand them that little yellow camera. But someday I want my future kids to have the joy of sitting at a kitchen table, flipping through an old box of pictures–pictures that include closed eyes and dorky smiles. A couple months ago, when I took a disposable camera to Hy-Vee to get developed, the employee had to search high and low for the developing envelopes. The next day when I went to pick them up, she remembered me and said she hadn’t seen anyone use one of those in a VERY long time.

I wouldn’t be surprised if an elementary kid didn’t know what these were:

That makes me so sad!! I hardly ever take the time these days to print out my digital pictures. I keep SD cards in random drawers and download my pictures on my computer, but a couple weeks ago, I had the misfortune of a crashed hard drive. Lots of those pictures I’ll never get back, except the ones I had on Facebook or those various SD cards laying around. I don’t want my future children sitting around someday flipping through a Facebook album though. I want them to sort through real, live, physical pictures and laugh about our outfits and outdated furnishings. So, to make it easier I’ve downloaded the Walgreens app, and I’m making a point to print pictures from time to time, and stuff them in a box. I’ve thought about designing and ordering picture books from Snapfish or Shutterfly as an option, too. The idea of making a family “year book” is something I’ve seen on Pinterest and really like.

So tell me, how do you organize your photos? Do you still use a disposable camera or 35mm film for fun? And if you really want to make me smile, send me your favorite vintage photo! It doesn’t get much better than this: