A Lesson Learned The Hard Way

Today’s submission has no pictures because I. Screwed. Up.

Here’s the backstory.

Mom had mentioned years ago that she still had dad’s old slides in the basement. Boxes and boxes of slide carts and carousels and SLIDES. So I volunteered to go through them, organize them, and convert some of them. With her blessings, I had the slides shipped to my house, purchased a slide converter, and away I went.

It was a slow and tedious process, and in all the sorting, which tied up the dining room table for MONTHS with various piles and stacks and such, I would find groups of slides that there really was no point in keeping. So then I’d call mom and ask what she wanted me to do with them.

The slides of the Columbus City Zoo from 45 years ago really held no value to either one of us. Yes, I kept the shots that actually had family in them, but of the cages and habitats of the animals? Just taking up space. So I offered them to the zoo for their archives under mom and dad’s name. They jumped at the chance to get them, so I mailed them off. Never heard anything else from them.

There were slides of numerous Labor Day parades in our little town. Dad sure did like the antique cars. And pretty girls. Again, I called mom. Unless there was someone in the photos that we knew, no point in keeping them, either. So this time quite a few slides hit the trashcan. I was careful to scrutinize each and every slide. In a few I found one brother with the band, and another in the cub scouts, so of course those were saved. And some from the early 60’s that had our parents and grandparents in them. Mom was pregnant in some of them. She sure was cute! And me sitting with grandpa on the hood of a car.


Then there were the shots of an old man on a stage. In checking the notation on the side of the slide cart, I was able to figure out that this was the famous Eddie Rickenbacker, at a military ceremony at (then) Lockbourne AFB, OH. Cool! I called mom, who again had no real use for the slides, and suggested possibly donating them to the Air Force History archives. Good idea. So after a few emails, off they went. This was a few years ago, mind you. Never heard from them, either.

I recently returned home to visit family and friends, and just happened to mention to one of my brothers about the Rickenbacker slides, and what I’d done with them. He got a bit interested, and asked if I’d converted them and kept copies. When I said no, he said that was too bad. Our dad had worked on setting up the stage for that ceremony! It would have been nice to have kept the shots, just because dad had had a hand in history. Yeah, this is where I. Screwed. Up.

What, exactly was the screw-up? In not checking with EVERYONE in the family. Maybe my other brother would have been interested as well. Or maybe both brothers would have liked copies of the zoo so they could track the changes made over the years. Who knows? Maybe mom or dad had talked to the boys and given them information or told them stories that I never knew (like Eddie Rickenbacker). But now it’s too late for the zoo and Eddie.

I still have a few more slides to go through, but what took up boxes and boxes now reside in plastic slide-protector notebook sleeves in 2 big notebooks. In getting the slides shipped to me, getting the plastic protective sleeves, notebooks, slide viewers, slide converter, having prints made, and in making scrapbooks for both brothers and mom, I spent over $500 dollars. But the trip down memory lane? And some (possibly) very good blackmail shots? Totally, absolutely, priceless.