My father never took photos while we were growing up. He took "slides." They were much cheaper to have developed than photographs, and we spent many evenings having friends over to watch slides. My father would pull out the slide projector and put up the white screen to show them on. Does anyone even do that anymore? I imagine digital photos could be made into slides for slide presentations. The slides were put into round, plastic carousals and then put into the projector.
My parents moved from Michigan to Kentucky after my sister and I left home. They lived there for about seven years. A huge flood hit in the spring of 1977 (it could have been 1978), and they lost everything they owned. That included all of the slides. The physical memories of our childhood were totally destroyed.
Since my mother died in June, and my father is in a nursing home, I was at their former apartment yesterday trying to get things packed up for moving. I found 3 CD's of pictures where someone had tried to preserve a few of my father's slides. Most of the pictures on the CD's are so destroyed they are barely recognizable, but a few are good enough to bring back some fun memories. I thought I'd share two so you can see what I looked like way back then. Man. I sure don't look like that now!
The tall, dark-haired, skinny guy on the left is me. My father is the man on the far right, and my mother is crouching down. That slide must have been taken around 1967.
This picture was taken around 1976 at one of my cousin's wedding. Yep, I was sporting a mustache at the time.
I actually have one more I can show you. It sure made me laugh. I don't have any idea what year it was taken. Probably around 1964. None of the families we knew had much money, but everyone did buy an up-ground swimming pool. That's how we spent our summers. This is a picture of my best friend at the time, Dennis, my sister and only sibling Renee, and me.
What a difference 40 + years make. I wouldn't be caught dead in a bathing suit now!
