We broke out the slides when my father was near death this past Winter. By the time of his funeral I had pared it down to a select hundred or so and entertained Mom, my siblings, and our kids a couple of times. Not that Dad missed out. He got one last show when I visited earlier in 2007 and brought them down from the upstairs closet along with the old Graflex Constellation projector. The smell of a warm projector! I love that smell.

Having kids of our own allows us to recognize the sweet and delicate and vulnerable embrace my brother's godfather is relishing in this shot and it ties us to the past more strongly than we could have expected when as kids we were squirming in front of the screen waiting for the next slide and hoping yourself was in the shot.

Dad used his trusty Kodak Retina in the smooth brown leather case. My older sisters always complained that he shot on slide film instead of prints that they could more readily enjoy or share with friends. Dad preferred the clarity of Kodachrome and I didn't know that about him until after I cultivated my own preference for quality, which in my time means preferring film to digital.

Christmas 1964 in Rochester, Indiana. Kodachrome slide. View full size. [It's Christmas in June (for me, especially) with an exceptional selection of member-submitted color slides. There are even more here. Thanks, Santa! - Dave]

January 1969 in Rochester, Indiana. If you can figure out what movie or TV show that is, I'll give you a cookie. I'm stumped. From a Kodachrome slide. View full size.

Early 1960's in Crown Point, Indiana. View full size.

My dad around 1948, Valparaiso, Indiana. View full size.

Santa Cruz, California Beach Boardwalk September 1953. Here I am at the entrance to the Fun House, alas now long gone. We might have gone down there for my 7th birthday; the prints from this negative (2-1/4 square Kodacolor) were made the following month. Wish I still had a shirt like that. View full size.

The Holiday Shop record and camera store in the Roeland Park Shopping Center in Roeland Park, Kansas. We saw the music section last week. View full size.