First Person
Dad’s Kodak Carousels
Dear Kay,
Not long ago, my dad deposited four Kodak slide carousels at my house, clearly in a mood. He said he had no idea what would be on these carousels, but have at it if I wanted to make digital copies to share with the family.
Up top is my own carousel of some of the images from the piles of slides. You click the arrows, in a 21st-century version of a Kodak Carousel.
I thought about the famous scene from Mad Men, when Don Draper pitches the executives from Kodak on an ad campaign for a new product, a slide projector with a wheel on top.
I recognize a few of the places, based on what I know of the chronology of my parents’ life. It’s the mid 1950s, and Kodachrome was for real. There’s a trip to San Francisco, to Puerto Rico. Nashville for medical school. Killeen, Texas for the Army. New York for his residency. I can tell that my mother took some of these—only she would take a photograph of a building.
As I look at these images, I think about how analog they are—how you kept a photo even if it wasn’t great because you had used a piece of film to take it. It was rare. And I think about how the labels scrawled on some of these are now separated from the images. It all becomes a blur, and the sensation of nostalgia is potent, just as Don Draper says in his pitch:
In Greek nostalgia literally means “the pain from an old wound.”
It’s a twinge in your heart, far more powerful than memory alone.
This device isn’t a space ship. It’s a time machine. It goes backwards, forwards. Takes us to a place where we ache to go again.
It’s not called “The Wheel.” It’s called “The Carousel.”
It lets us travel the way a child travels. Around and around and back home again to a place where we know we are loved.
Love,
Ann
PS And yes, amid the 1950s Easter photos, there I am at my prom in 1981—a photo that my dad (and my sister, no doubt) put in the slide show at Jon’s and my rehearsal dinner in 1990 to tease me. Now that’s a special kind of pain from an old wound!
Love your trip down Memory Lane. I suspect we all have similar carousels stashed somewhere in our closets. Is that Belleayre Mountain?? Many fond memories skiing there as a kid.
This reminds me of a recent difficulty. In getting ready for my recent move, the men who were helping me clear out the house (home of almost 30 years) apparently threw out stuff before I got wind of what they were doing. It wasn’t until the end of the second day did I realize that my family pictures (including my baby and childhood pics) and my yearbook had been among the missing. Too bad. Really, really too bad (wonder if there is any special knitting project to help get through this).
In your carosel, Ann, I especially like the one where your mom is holding the Easter basket and baby, the one of you going to the prom, and all the San Francisco ones (I’m from there).
I am so sorry for your loss of the photos! That is truly awful.
How awful, Diane. Terrible.
Thanks very much for sharing those family slides with us.
Fabulous!
I should also get our family slides digitized …
What a treasure. I just went through the thousands of slides of my parents. We lived overseas forever and whenever we went on vacation to Europe we would have the slide show night when we got back. Thanks a for the reminder!
1. Yer ma: chic for days. You are all her.
2. You simply must have a slideshow party. I always thought they were so glamorous.
These are incredible. Just so rich. Thank you!
I have boxes of such Kodachrome excellence at my house. The job of sorting through them all is daunting. Even now I have a hard time chucking out the bits of film.
Thanks for taking me down Memory Lane. My dad would put together slide shows for friends and family. Those were always fun evenings.
We didn’t have slides, but we had home movies. Husband took them to “a place” where they put them all on a disc, with copies for each of the daughters. They were a huge hit with everyone, and they even had friends over for viewing parties. It was well worth the effort. Will anyone every really see all the snapshots that just live on my phone, or are downloaded onto the computer?
These images are so great, Ann!
I also have several carousels of slides, mostly taken from 1966 (when we moved to England for a few years) into the mid-70s. My younger sister was born in 1966 and virtually all of her baby/toddler pictures are on slides. This year, in honor of her (ahem) big birthday, I scanned a bunch to make a book for her and had four enlargements done as well. My favorite is one of Dad reading to her when she was maybe 18 months old. They are so intent on the book, and I know that Mom crept up on them and took the picture. It makes my heart full.
Chills! This is just a fantastic post. Ole Draper, whew. Love all the photos, the nostalgia just emotes off of them.
Also, Kodachrome is one of my all time favorite songs. It played in my head while I read.
Kurt! I was thinking of you when I pulled this together, hoping you’d see our gallery in action.
Wishing you CUBS VICTORY.
These are beautiful, and it’s so fascinating to get a glimpse into another family’s life. For some reason I find it very touching that you dated Jon before he was taller than you. 🙂 Thanks for sharing the memories.
Oh, Susan, the interesting thing about that prom date is that he is not actually Jon! My first date with Jon was about six weeks after that prom . . .
I could have sworn it was Jon, I wonder why I assumed that. Well, he’s cute too, you’re both adorable!
Answered my question! Wondered if Hubbo was the short guy in the prom picture. Also, assume the elegant woman with crossed arms with the man in the white jacket is your mother. Thought it might be you. Love that picture! Also love the whole post. Very literary and evocative.
My dad is 90 and still waiting for me to put slides on a promised DVD as our projectors are long gone. Love your mom’s glasses. Mine has a similar pair in pale pink:)
In Nashville, we have two art supply recycling stores, and they take old slides; evidently the old slides are used in various art projects. I don’t know if this will help others get rid of their old slides, but it will definitely help me. I probably won’t give away slides that show family or friends, but I’ll get rid of the ones of buildings and scenery. (And I’ll still have plenty of photographs of my past without the slides!)
My mother has estimated she has some 50,000 slides. Some are precious, but most aren’t. However, no one has the time to sift through them, and make copies of the precious ones.
Priceless in so many ways!
I love your photos! When my father died at age 80, my mother and sisters and I spent a weekend going through 9 years of slides while my mother narrated. They covered their first year of marriage, my birth and that of my younger sisters. Seeing them on a big screen was powerful! We laughed and cried and shared wonderful memories. I am so thankful that my mother had kept the slides despite her divorce after 28 years of marriage from my dad 27 years earlier. Today with photos being digital and ubiquitous, I worry that many will be lost over the years (I save all my photos in multiple hard drives for that reason, but they need better organization)!
If only there were only 4 carousels in my closet!
Thanks! Love all your pics! And the little pat on the back I gave myself for guessing it was NYC snuck in there (made up for not having a clue about the PR pics). Btw, Ann, you really look exactly as you did at that prom! Get thee on a commercial for cold cream, or whatever new-fangled name they have for that stuff now. Or perhaps all that TN humidity isn’t such a bad thing after all? XO m
Priceless!
Those are fabulous!!! Thanks so much for sharing. The prom picture is totes adorbs as the kids say!
This is great!
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My family doesn’t have slides or movies, but we have my Grandma’s albums as well as lots of shoeboxes full of photos. My favorite part is the annotations on the back, or even better, in the margins of the photos, in Grandma’s or Mom’s handwriting. (Marginalia! As a librarian, there’s always that confusion: I love it on old stuff, including in old/rare books, but I hate when people write in current books!) Also, that scene from Mad Men is one of my favorite scenes ever – whenever I got annoyed with Don Draper, I would remember his narration of the carousel, and I’d forgive him again!
I converted boxes and boxes of slides from my father, 1954 to the 80’s, to digital. Now we have thousands of pics from our childhood, which I torture the family with on Facebook…..Thank you for the Saturday newsletter, that and a pot of coffee keep me entertained and inspired all morning.