38 years ago today… – Winter Park Florida Photographer

My grandfather passed away.  I never knew him because I was not yet even a glimmer in my parents’ eyes.

My Mom had a box of Grandpa’s old slide film in her storage room for years.  I never saw any of the images because we never had a projector or anything to view them on.  One day when she was out of town I decided to secretly get to work and sort through and scan all of this slide film for her.  The first images I found were of my mother as very young girl, maybe 3 or 4 years old.  They continued until my mother’s late teenage years, specifically the trip that she met my father.  That was amazing to me, to have images of when my parents met! The slides told me stories of my mother’s childhood that I never even knew existed… they unfolded before me, one by one on my computer screen.  The best part was that the images were in color instead of black and white.  I could see the color of Mom’s hair, the pink in Grandma’s lipstick and the red of her shoes.  It was incredible.

I put more than 200 images together and made a book for my mother and for her siblings.  I was giving them a gift, but it turns out that I got the best gift of all.  I felt like my Grandfather was sitting with me and telling me a story every time an image would pop up on my computer screen.

Delos Casey was a pharmacist at Casey Drug and Jewelry in Madison, South Dakota.  He died at the age of 63.  He was a funny man, had his famous phrases like “You can never put enough butter in potato soup.” I think most of all though, he liked to drink with the ladies.

I wish I could have known you, Grandpa.