Stumbling across Nostalgia

You never know where an email will lead...

I run the website for my local photography club, so when someone writes a note in the "contact" section, I am the one who reads it and responds.

One day I got an email from a local woman whose 95-year-old grandfather had passed away. She wanted to donate his old darkroom equipment to the club, and if we couldn't use it, she wanted advice on who might want it.

Even though our club had no need for any of the items--or any place to store them even if we did--out of curiosity I agreed to come by and check out what he had accumulated over the years.

Wow!

To tell you that I was overwhelmed when I walked into that room would be an understatement. Lining the walls there were boxes upon boxes of Kodak Slide Carousels full of slides that he had taken beginning in the 1940s.

And they were preparing to throw them all away!

I was particularly drawn to the boxes marked "Paris, 1949" and "England, 1949" and next thing you know, I am hauling home a number of boxes of slides.

Two things struck me as I looked through them:

1. These are really cool old images! Look at the cars! Look at the fashions!

And...

2. Maybe I could have the coolest ones scanned and sell them as prints!

And so it began.

Before long I was back to take the rest of the slides from the man's estate just before they were dumped in the trash. I estimate that I was 30,000 slides that I brought home that day.

I have since accumulated more slides and negatives from other sources (don't throw them away! Call me!) and now most of my current Etsy inventory is a mix of slides I found that day and new ones I have obtained.

I am having a great time!