Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Photoessay #76 – Alas, we are only ourselves


I’m interested in my parent’s slide collection, possibly it will provide insights and opportunities. I’ve dragged out the box of slides (possibly there are more somewhere) and the projector, many slide viewers that don’t seem to work or don’t have batteries or both. I suspect the older slides may be those that are missing. I get the slide projector going….

Middle class families of my parent’s generation took slides, that was considered the best kind of picture. I don’t know why, maybe it was some great marketing push by Kodak. Anyway we all have them.

My mother and I go through a few boxes. From the early 70s. What come out is the truth, my sister is cute and smiling and I am snarling and unhappy. Which was rather how it was. Many cute pictures of my young sister, posing and being her sunny self. I’m always showing a bad attitude, which is actually how I felt. Never occurred to me to feel any differently.

If we have no idea where a slide was taken or who the heck could possibly be in it, we discard it. Maybe some have historical value. Candlestick Park in the early seventies? View of Lake Tahoe (maybe, could be)?

So far, the most meaningful slides that I found are from a day trip that my father took myself and my friend Priscilla to visit UCSC in 1970 when we were finishing our senior year in high school. He actually took the day off (can you imagine?) to do so. I am so happy to see pictures of Priscilla. My mother doesn’t remember Priscilla at all. I think, how can you forget her?

For more information about Priscilla check out http://www.dsbarnes.com/priscilla/ I’m sure I will write more about this later. I prepared this in 2002 when I realized that the Priscilla Parkin award was given out at Crown College and NOBODY there knew who she was.

1 comment:

Oreo said...

I am glad you found some pictures that mean something to you. They are worth only what family can see and nothing to any one else. They are going to be pitched sonner or later. Loat moments in our history