Friday, March 4, 2016

No 'Negative' Influences

I have recently been looking through some old negatives from film that has been developed.  (For those of you who don't know what negatives are, it is from old school cameras-before digital.)  I collected these in a fireproof box in the event that our house would catch on fire and I would at least be able to reprint our priceless photos. 

I have been able to view the negative strips through a viewer that you hold up to a light.  This viewer was actually used to view the old slides that people had when they used to have slide-shows.  It is a very slow process since the strips are wider than the viewer slot and you have to keep repositioning it and turning it around. 

Some of our negatives are recent; mostly from Christmas or vacation.  The older ones are on the bottom of the box and are the smaller 110 type.  I have always kept our photos organized and in albums, most are labeled with a description and year.  But as I looked at these small pieces of my life, I was reminded of different people who have influenced me and my family.  There were day care workers and school teachers, church leaders and Scout Masters.  Friends and family members of friends who were there to offer their help.   Some of them never were given the credit they deserved for shaping the lives of so many.  Most of them would be embarrassed if you told them 'thank you' for all that they did and would insist they didn't do anything. 

I have enjoyed looking at these; yes, I do have the pictures I can look at.  But some of these have been lost to my mind until recently.  I hope over the years I have impacted someone that could say my name and think 'she was a positive influence'.