Month: July 2026

I would like to thank my extended family and my wife’s extended family for appointing me to the position of Photo Archivist for both clans. The subtlety of the appointment was impressive.  “Gosh, Aunt Helen died and we are cleaning out her homestead. Our storage space is limited.  Could you possibly keep some of the family documents, birth certificates, baptismal certificates, and Ovaltine Club membership cards at your place?  Oh yes, and there may be a couple of photographs.”  Very innocuous.  When I agreed, four boxes of photos and documents were delivered from Aunt Helen’s estate.  Because I didn’t recoil from this charade, I was immediately and permanently appointed Czar of the extended family photos.  Siezing opportunity, my wife’s siblings very quickly shipped three boxes of photos that had been stashed away by their parents.  

My sisters (Lucretia and Mad Madame Mim) jumped on the bandwagon for the Sinelli family.  “Mom has a few old family pictures.  Her ancestors have been in Washtenaw County for five generations and we would hate to lose this handful of mementos.  Can you hold on to these documents and pictures for a little while?”  Five more boxes.  Eventually, the storage requests revved up to high gear.  “Uncle Alex and Uncle Mike Sinelli  have no heirs.  Here are eight boxes of artifacts.”  “When Joanne moves to assisted living, get a U-Haul and load all of the valuable pictures and documents to store someplace at the ranch.  Good thing you have all kinds of storage space!”

So, the process went from an initial request for holding a few documents to assuming that I was the official Archivist for all historical documents and pictures for both families.  The aggregation of documents continued unabated.  Last week I asked google “What are the world’s largest collections of photographs?”  AI responded: number one is World War II, number two is World War I, and number three is the Blond and Sinelli Family Photo Archive.

For many reasons, it became clear that keeping random boxes of photographs in a storage locker was not very helpful to anyone.  As Official Archivist, I committed to a plan to convert all of the photos and other documents to a digital format.  It would certainly minimize storage.  Everything could easily fit on a $50 terabyte portable hard drive about half the size of a cell phone.  Organizing the pictures with a rudimentary indexing system would facilitate access to any particular photo in a few seconds.    

I am proud to say that I completed the scanning and archiving process on July 18, 2026.  The count of scanned files in my portable hard drive is 20,432 photos.  When I started the process I assumed that the most time consuming effort would be scanning and we should outsource that activity to some other professionals for a fee.  What would happen if we sent 20,432 pictures to a scanning company?  We would get a massive file that would have no value to anyone.  Are you going to search through that many pictures to find a couple of nifty photos of four year old Kevin to display at his 50^th birthday party?

So, we set up a test program of three hundred photos.  The critical path event that required the most expenditure of time, by far, was reviewing the photos to see how we should index and store them.  Once that was done, the scanning was fast and easy with the spiffy new photo scanner I purchased for the process.  We could easily scan 400 photos and hour.  Clearly, we had to do the sorting and indexing whether or not we outsourced the scanning.  “Insourcing” the scanning allowed us to stretch the process out for years and do it at our convenience, one box at a time.    

Reviewing and indexing are a lot more complex than you would assume.  First, it seems that nearly all Americans have developed the same process for storing their photos and documents.  They toss everything into a box in the closet.  When the box is full, they get another box and toss in more stuff until it is full and they keep repeating those steps.  We processed somewhere between twenty and thirty large boxes.  They were all the same.  A complete hodgepodge of loose photos, photo albums, framed and unframed portraits, birth certificates, death certificates, grade school report cards, safe driving awards, expired drivers licenses, draft cards, discharge papers, diplomas, and souvenirs from various sporting events and vacations.  Second, finding suckers Archivists to store your photos has been continual over the years.  For example, when we reviewed Aunt Helen’s boxes it was very clear that a lot of her collections had been dumped on passed along to her by loving relatives.  I could not simply include her photos in the indexing.  I needed to expand the cataloguing process to encompass her extended family members. 

A lot of the collections included the same photos from the same events.  For weddings and portraits in the Drawe family dating back to the 1920’s, we found more than ten copies of the same photos totally scattered over ten different boxes from different relatives.  If we were processing two hundred pictures, it would be easy to eliminate the duplicates.  It is impossible to do that when you are scanning 20,432 photos out of different boxes over two or three years. 

Similarly, you have to electronically store a number of family photos, multiple times.  A great group picture of all the siblings needed to be posted to the right slot for everyone.  So, we would scan and copy a lot of pictures. One copy for Bubba’s folder, one copy for brother Bob, one for sister Hermoine, etc.     

Finally, it was very hard to determine who was in a number of photos. Great picture.  Do we know any of these people?  For example, I spent several hours pouring over an arial shot of the entire Rose Bowl with a magnifying glass.  Who do I know in this picture?  I finally found my nephew and father in law.  Unfortunately, Dad had his eyes closed when they snapped the picture.

When the scanning was complete, I sent out thirty seven thumb drives with all of the indexed photographs, uniquely tailored to each family member.   The inventories were not perfect.  There are some crummy pictures, some blurry photos, some embarrassing pics and a lot of duplicates.  No doubt, I included some pictures that were actually sent out by the thumb drive recipient to other family members. Notwithstanding, there were a few great gems for everyone.  With the indexing, it should be easy to find and enjoy many years of pictures.  

Along with the thumb drive, I gave the following notice to the extended family members.

The good news is I am excited to continue my work as the Document and Photo Archivist for your family.  However, we need to make a few changes. To streamline sorting and indexing, I will require some additional steps in the submission process.  First, for each photo you submit, identify the people in the photo, the location of the shot, any ceremony or event that is taking place, and the date the picture was taken.  In addition, render a minimal processing fee by taping a ten dollar bill to the back of each photo you are submitting.  Unfortunately, any photos that do not satisfy these requirements will not be accepted by the Archivists.

Enjoy the pictures.  We look forward to the next 20,432 photographs!

I have perfected the Archiving process.  I have the software, digital hardware and scanning capabilities.  However, the flow of new pictures, for some reason, has stopped. 

The next time you pick up a copy of the 1965 St. Thomas High School yearbook turn to page forty-five.  You will see a picture of all the seniors who spent their entire grade school, junior high and high school years at that fine institution.  These are very fortunate people.  Lucky to spend their formative years in the late fifties and early sixties and lucky to spend so much time at this great school.

St. Thomas was a simple parish school run by The Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters.  It was not elitist. It was not expensive.  The school tried hard to include anyone in the parish who wished to attend.  There were a few non parishioners and non catholic students as well. The priests and nuns found a way to support students at any income level.  Academically, St Thomas was excellent.  For example, in May of 1965 seventy-nine of the eighty seniors had been accepted at different colleges and universities around the country.  The eightieth classmate wanted to be a professional baseball umpire.  Ironically, he changed course and became the first student in our class to complete his PHD program. But what St. Thomas was really good at was teaching kids how to learn and how to make decisions that impacted their lives.   

From first grade through twelfth, the school and the Sisters were consistent.  They had the same unalterable values and purpose.  Everybody saw things the same way.  We weren’t bombarded with religion. It was one of eight classes.  We were bombarded with education.  If you were not progressing with your math, they knew it.  We never had a class with less than forty-five students  and the Sister up front knew where each of us stood every day.  If I was having problems with math, it took a few seconds for Sister Lucentia to determine if it was a comprehension problem or I wasn’t doing the work.  She would quickly resolve the issue either way.

By fourth grade, I learned that not doing the work was the worst possible path to follow.  The most dreaded phrase ever uttered was “Take this note to your parents.  Have them sign it and bring it back to me tomorrow.”  Great, I have been verbally pounded by my IHM teacher (we thought that the initials stood for Iron Hearted Monster) and now things are going to get much worse.  No place in this entire scenario is there an avenue that allows me to explain my actions. My opinion does not count.  “Sister Maureen sent us a note and you are in trouble. We don’t expect notes from Sister Maureen. You are grounded!”  These people were joined at the hip.  By fifth grade, you have learned that the best option is to avoid incurring the wrath of the ever vigilant Sister Maureen.

Perhaps my good friend, Tim Kellman’s encounter sums it up best.  After a perceived lack of performance, the IHM instructor made this point: “Mr. Kellman, I can’t force you to do anything, but I can make you wish you had.”

This was a planned strategy by the nuns.  When they knew that you were likely to do the work, they could  settle in to teaching you the skills you are supposed to have. 

The most important skills were not facts and figures.  The critical expertise was the ability to make your own independent decisions.  They also believed that you should maximize your potential in every subject and helped you through the process.  Everything was expectation oriented.  “Test scores and your long history at our school show that you have an aptitude for math.  Of course you will master calculus and maybe quantum physics by your Sophomore year.”  The IHM instructors taught me how to write.  My strongest business talent was documenting and communicating complex business problems in written documents.  I learned how to do that before I passed out of eighth grade.  Our tenure at St. Thomas instilled us with a life long drive to gather real skills and it minimized any fear of competing and succeeding.  The dedication and expertise of these phenomenal women truly improved the lives of thousands of students.

St. Thomas gave us a strong push in the right direction but several other factors also had a big impact on our development. 

Our parents survived the great depression and knew what it was like not to have much opportunity.  They recognized that the world was different for us and fully expected that we would take advantage of the real, significant, opportunity offered by the fifties and sixties. They were not morose or afraid. They were positive and practical and they were really expert at evaluating avenues to create a better life. That is how they survived for many years when the pickings were slim. Mom and Dad didn’t preach to us.  They simply expected us to become very good at something and they tracked our progress.  A college education wasn’t required but outstanding skills were.

A second critical factor was simply being in high school during the turbulent and fantastic  sixties.  These were break out times.  There were huge social issues and teenagers were taking stands on those issues.  The self reliance skills fostered by our parents and St. Thomas were applied full force.  We had clear opinions on the civil rights movements, the Vietnam war and true equality for women.  Certainly, we had been raised to apply our beliefs.  We thought through our positions and followed them boldly.  Some of my classmates marched with Father Jackson to support Martin Luther King.  Some volunteered to fight in Vietnam.  One lost his life and another was badly injured.  Many became part of the anti-war movement that was so prominent on Michigan’s campus.  Most of us adopted new views on sex and drugs and many of us were heavy alcohol and tobacco users.  Clearly, very different choices were made by our friends and schoolmates.  There were huge arguments but underneath it all we respected everyone’s right to pick a side.

In June of 1965, eighty of us stepped confidently into the world.  Most of us did not know what we would do for the rest of our lives.  The nuns and our parents taught us that it may not be wise to live your life based on the decisions of a seventeen year old.  However, most of us were very confident that we would eventually figure out what was best for us.  Thanks to St. Thomas, we had spectacular tools to help us through the process.  The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary created that environment.  

Many solid achievements came from the class of ’65.  We had lawyers, professors, architects, nurses, the high school principal at Pioneer High and the Union President of the Ann Arbor Education Association. In 1969, six of us married our senior prom dates and we are still married to the same partners fifty-seven years later.  Most of us have tried to pass our values and beliefs along to our children and grand children.  Yes, we were lucky to have had the IHM – St. Thomas educational experience. 

When you review the “Twelve Year” photo, I am the dashing fellow on the far left of the top row. As it turns out, this is permanent documentation of one of the only occasions when I was able to slip something over on The IHM Sisters.  My family did not move back to Ann Arbor until I was in the second grade and I spent my Freshman and Sophomore year at Sacred Heart in Detroit.  I only attended this fine institution for nine years.  So, I engineered a 1965 photo bomb forty years before the phenomenon was labeled and identified.  Amazing that I could pull this off with Sister Marie Lawrence riding heard on the photo shoot.

Most importantly, I pulled it off without having to take a note to my parents.