Something To Do This Weekend: Scan Old Pictures

Author Geno

April 3rd, 2020 1:00 PM

For the past few Fridays, I’ve been posting a list of 10 things you CAN do in the Tampa area. The list has become more of a challenge as travel restrictions tighten as the coronavirus spreads. So that said, I’m going to suggest something that I did this week. You can do it at home and you’ve probably been meaning to do it for years: scan old photographs.

Before cell phone cameras were a part of our lives, we used to take pretty awesome pics because we only could take 24 at a time before running out of film. We didn’t take a lot of pics of our food. Why would we? Instead we took pictures of our families, friends and good times. A half eaten burger would’ve been a waste of film.

Here are some pics I dug out and digitized this week. I’ve sent a bunch to my grandmother in Maine. She’s 94 so she’s being smart and staying at home so I sent these to her digital photo frame I bought her for Christmas a couple years ago. (Great gift by the way, be sure to pick one you can email the photos to from anywhere!)

• That’s grandma.

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  She's 94 now. She JUST retired a couple years ago. She can still drive (she doesn't much) and will whoop your butt at Jeopardy.

• Clearly laughing at my own jokes started at an early age.

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  Hammin' it up.

• School Bus Driver

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  Forgot about this. My first career aspiration was to be a school bus driver. I friggin' loved school buses. I have no idea why. My friend Amy on the right... she was the next door neighbor. Her mom drove one and I was in awe of her for it.
• Mom and I

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  Ahh the 70s.

• Chicks dig a man in uniform.

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  Pull those pants up higher Geno.

• My gift giving skills…

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  Nothing says happy birthday mom like a handheld vacuum and a box of crackers. Way to go Geno.
• Future serial killer phase.

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  At some point around junior high, I realized I needed glasses. Thus began my awkward phase.

• From bus driver to NHL star

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  I lost my thing for school buses and instead idolized Wayne Gretzky. I didn't have his talent though.

• In fact, I sucked.

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  I'm pretty sure this was a participation trophy before participation trophies were even a thing. Most kids who played hockey learned to skate as they learned to walk. I didn't strap on a pair of skates until this year this photo was taken.
• Ditched the glasses.

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  Thank you contacts. I lost the serial killer look in high school. Fortunately about 10 years later I got Lasik done when I was doing a morning show in California.

• Since I sucked at hockey…

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  Another career change was in the works. I was going to be a pro wrestler. That was until I realized that required athletic skill and that I looked terrible in a speedo. So I settled for being a ring announcer for about 5 years.

• One last career change.

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  Since pro wrestling didn't pan out, I realized the thing I liked the most about it was that I could be a wise ass and get paid for it. That's when radio became my thing.
• 89.3FM baby!

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  It wasn't easy to get radio bosses to give an inexperienced teenager a chance. So on school vacation weeks, I would go 2 hours north to Bangor, Maine to be on a tiny college radio station that nobody listened to. I didn't care. I felt like a star.

• High school graduation time… which career do I go with?

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  Pretty sure I could've been a tux model. But ...

• I stuck with radio.

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  You probably guessed that anyway since you're on my Q105 page. My first real radio station was Thunder 107, a Top 40 station in Portland, Maine. I thought I was big time. In reality, I was awful. But fortunately in Portland, Maine you can be awful because nobody's hearing you anyway. Internet radio wasn't a thing yet. The internet wasn't a thing yet.
• Sad day in 1992…

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  I'll never forget it. Since the internet wasn't around, nobody told me my station back home changed formats and went under. I was away at college in Boston. I found out about the format change in my COLLEGE LIBRARY! I was reading a radio trade magazine. THAT is how I found out! I called the front desk at the radio station and they confirmed the news that his had happened weeks ago. I was devastated.

• Fortunately, one of the DJs from that station liked me.

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  As bad as I was, I got hired to work for a station near Boston when I was in college. It was brutal playing Michael Bolton songs at 3AM, but hey I was still on the air.

• The station evolved…

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  They got out of the awful Michael Bolton stuff and moved on to Barenaked Ladies and Matchbox Twenty type music. That's me with BNL backstage sometime around 2000.
• I was pretty fond of that shirt huh?

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  I just realized this is the 3rd pic in a row wearing it. By the way, that kid in the pic I'm pretty sure is my cousin who just graduated college.

• Hey look….

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  I did have another shirt after all.

• BNL … again?

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  Honestly this station did play more than the Barenaked Ladies as I recall.
• Florida!

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  I grew up the kid of a hard-working single mom. She worked a bunch of jobs to make ends meet. So I didn't get to visit Florida until I was in my mid 20s. That first visit was in February when the weather here was perfect. When I got back to Massachusetts and it was cold and snowy, I knew Florida would be home someday.

• The end of the film camera years…

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  This is probably one of the last pics of me taken with an old fashioned camera. It was a Halloween party. Not long after this, I made my way to Florida for the first time. But one problem.

• Tallahassee.

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  That dream job in Florida was in Tallahassee. I had never been to Tallahassee. I loved those people I worked with you see in the photo, but hated living in North Florida. Fortunately the SECOND time I moved to Florida I got it right and landed in Tampa.

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Author Geno

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