Jason Earle

Last night I sat down and shuffled through several boxes of old family photos, putting aside the ones I’m going to send off to a great little company I just discovered, called ScanCafe. They very inexpensively scan and repair old prints, slides and negatives by hand. I love the idea of getting my old pictures digitized as a way to “back up” these priceless memories, but it’s also the simplest way to easily share them with loved ones and future generations. I ordered their Gift Box, which allows you to stuff as many photos as you can fit into it for $150, postage prepaid and fully insured. I got at least 500 pictures into the box comfortably. It will be 4-6 weeks till I get them back but you’d have a hard time paying a small family of Malaysian pygmies so little to do so much. Not even Nike could pull that off.

Anyway…

Most of the shots I put aside to be sent away were from my early childhood, some from before I was born. At the end of this epic sorting exercise, my lovely and loving counterpart, Shannon, commented on the nearly ubiquitous presence of dogs and other furry critters in these faded images of my family and friends. Sure enough, dogs were always a part of our world. I cannot recall a time when we didn’t have at least one, if not three and sometimes even more! They were seemingly always flanked by their requisite feline companions too, not to mention the horses, rabbits, goats, turtles, hamsters and occasional goldfish.

My father used to answer the phone, “Earle’s emporium and petting zoo!”

I am not kidding.

Neither was he.

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