Recently a bag of slides appeared in the mail from my wife’s aunt. The note said, “Thought you might like these slides from Grandmother’s collection. I’ve had these for several years!” The bag was truly a treasure trove of memories, depicting my wife’s parent in their twenties around the time that she was born.
Best of all, many of them were Kodachrome and still had the rich colors the media type was known for.
This slide was taken somewhere in Oregon or Washington, while the wife’s family was on a camping trip. She would have been just a month old at that point. The car – possibly a 1962 Pontiac – was owned by her grandparents. The Security Traveler “canned ham” trailer: pure Sixties righteousness. My father-in-law, ever thin as he is today, takes a drag off his Marlboro and looks pensively into his Dad’s camera. I love the design in his shirt, and the pencil-thin pants. The clothes and the stance depict the essence of cool. While he no longer smokes, to this day he stands in the same way.
And so does my brother-in-law!
February 10, 2012
BelRedRoad
6 responses to “Father-In-Law was a Cool Traveler in `64”
Brian Westbye
February 10th, 2012 at 16:47
Love!
Joy
February 10th, 2012 at 17:05
“Sixties righteouness”… Love it!! Note the tent in the background. Those campers were cool, I wouldn’t mind having one now. I think I did a camping trip in one of those… Hey, my dad’s color slides are Kodachrome, so maybe they’re in as great as condition as these are. Thanks for sharing this.
BelRedRoad
February 10th, 2012 at 17:38
It’s very possible the Kodachrome slides of yours are still in good shape. While it was a complicated system to develop Kodachrome, it also seemed to lock in colors that fade in other types of film like Ektachrome. 60 year old Kodachromes still look great!
f-Stops.net
February 10th, 2012 at 20:17
Very nice “portrait”. Again, I’m bluffed how the fact that the shot is in color makes it feel almost like present days, or at least not that long ago. Thanks for sharing.
Jim Z.
February 21st, 2012 at 10:23
My dad has thousands of Kodachrome 35mm sliedes he took in the Navy from 1968-1974 and they look fabulous. He told me that the ASA was either 25 or 64 and so slow you needed a tripod on a cloudy day, but he preferred the grainless quality.
He also has thousands of Ektachrome slides that he took as part of his job in the Navy as a journalist. These have faded terribly, and are mainly monochrome blue now.
Nice site.
BelRedRoad
February 21st, 2012 at 10:55
Glad you enjoy it! Thanks for visiting