In time, I found myself worrying about what would be lost in the event of a house fire or hurricane. I wanted to digitize the images not only to preserve them but also to share them with friends and family, particularly my teenage daughter, so she could one day look back on them and realize her parents were once young, too.
It wasn’t until I decided to test photo scanning services for Consumer Reports that I found the energy to complete the project. For many years I was unsure of how to deal with the items—overwhelmed, really, by the sheer volume of material—and, more to the point, hesitant to hand over my irreplaceable photos and videos to some unknown entity.
When Jerry Beilinson, who oversees CR’s technology coverage, offered up boxes of his family’s slides from the 1960s and ’70s, I got even more motivated. But believe me, dear reader, when I say I was now twice as scared to get this project underway. Imagine being responsible for not only your priceless family memorabilia but your boss’s, too.
