on the road: taylor, mississippi

A few miles down the road from Oxford, Mississippi is the village of Taylor. Taylor occupies 4.1 miles and boasts a population of less than 500. To call it a village is a bit of an overstatement, but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in charm.

It's the kind of place where dogs sit in the back of pickup trucks while their owners eat dinner at Taylor Grocery, the local catfish joint. Dogs, rusty pick up trucks and tin roofs are the norm here. The pace is slow. The line in front of the restaurant is out the door, so everyone drinks their beverage of choice in the parking lot while they wait. On certain nights, a local band serenades patrons while they eat dinner off red and white checked tablecloths. The grilled catfish is delicious, the hushpuppies are decadent and the only thing missing from the entire experience is sweet tea served in Mason jars. When the rest of the world thinks of the South, they think of a place like Taylor. Taylor doesn't disappoint.

And just to further prove that we're crazy about dogs in the South, here are a few photos of our dog Porter playing with his new lab cousin Easton.

Neither one would sit in the back of a truck to wait for us to finish dinner.

City dogs...

family stories: sadie and gerald hardin

I've mentioned that we're currently working on a photography preservation project for Jonathan's grandparents, Sadie and Gerald. They were high school sweethearts, and they have been married 61 years. As we've been busy scanning and editing their photographs, I wanted to share some of them. These were my favorites that have already made it onto our gallery wall.

The photos were all taken around the time they were married, when they lived in downtown Memphis for several years. Gerald worked and attended business school, and Sadie worked several jobs. One of Gerald's jobs was in the Sears catalog division in midtown Memphis. 

Since we moved to Memphis in 2006, we have enjoyed taking them to downtown and midtown Memphis so they could see some of their old neighborhoods and reminisce. Unfortunately quite a few of the landmarks they remember began to decline in the 1960s and have since been razed to make room for uninspired (and often empty) strip malls.

The Sears building in midtown was one of Memphis' most notorious examples of a historic building that had been abandoned and neglected. In a lucky twist of fate, the building has recently been saved and is being converted into a mixed use urban village. You can read about it here. We're all excited that this piece of Memphis history will be preserved. Perhaps it will be the catalyst Memphis needs to save more of its historic buildings and homes. 

Above: Sadie and Gerald in high school.

Above: Sadie and Gerald at a state park in Mississippi. Below: Sadie's first job was as a dessert server. She was 17. Bottom: Sadie and Gerald at the Mid-South Fairgrounds Amusement Park in Memphis with their niece Patsy. She spent the week with them in their Memphis apartment.

editing photographs: before and after

Since we launched our film preservation services last fall, we've talked a lot about preserving family photographs and film slides. Today we wanted to spotlight the editing process of our film preservation services, so we used a photograph of our namesake Gerald from the late 1950s to demonstrate how it works. 

The top image is the raw image after it was scanned and digitized. The second image is after some minor edits -- we cleaned up the dust and rust spots. We went a step further on the bottom image and edited it using color retouching and cropping tools.

Some customers might like to have all three images digitized for their personal collections. It is nice to have options when displaying family photographs, and it's even better to have these images archived for future generations to treasure and enjoy.

If you are interested in our film preservation services, our basic scanning and editing package starts at $75 for 50 photographs. We also offer custom heritage photo books if you'd like to preserve your family memories. 

Ready for us to get started on your film preservation project? Contact us here. 

Raw photograph after initial scan.

Basic editing.

Advanced editing.

from the meridian star, 1949

The Meridian Star, 1949

Following the war, my grandparents moved from Italy to Meridian, Mississippi.

Modern day Italy and Mississippi couldn't be more different, so I can only imagine what a transatlantic move from Naples to Meridian would have been like in the late 1940s. It sounds incredibly romantic, but I'm sure it was also really, really difficult. 

If my grandmother struggled, she didn't let it show. She and my grandfather lived in Meridian until 1954, and then they spent the next 36 years in Naples. In 1990, they retired to Booneville, Mississippi, where they lived until my grandfather's death in 2002. After his passing, my grandmother returned to Naples, where she is spending her retirement surrounded by family, friends, books and her memories. 

To this day, she only talks about her years in Mississippi with fondness.

If you're curious as to what life was like in Meridian during that time, then you'll enjoy these articles from the Meridian Star that were written when my great-grandmother visited from Naples in 1949. At that time, my grandparents were pregnant with my father, their first child and my great-grandmother's first grandchild. 

The Meridian Star, 1949

Weren't they stylish? It's hard to believe these photos are more than 60 years old! My grandmother was (and still is) her mother's daughter. They look so happy to be together.

I wonder if my great-grandmother wrote about her trip....I must ask my aunt about that!