For about a year now I have been working with an archivist I hired to try and organize all the stuff I’ve saved over the years including; pictures, trophies, artifacts, clothing, etc.
One of the great finds were in slides my father had taken when I was a little kid that I had NEVER seen before. He was an amateur photographer and passed away in 2006. My mother was always worried about what to do with all the slides that he took . . . about 100,000 of them!
Since I now had an archivist on staff, I stepped up to the plate for the family and brought everything up from Miami to Fantasy of Flight. My car was totally loaded with every seat packed to the ceiling.
My Suburban loaded down with my Dad’s slides! The picture is of his mother who used to entertain the troops singing and dancing in WWI like Bob Hope did in WWII.
My dad took a lot of nature photography, animals, and artistic scenes and made a calendar for many years with his best pics. I knew there would be a lot of those types of pictures but was hoping for some family shots as well. I was not to be disappointed!
Here’s a shot of me as a baby. I had never seen picture until now!
There were a good number of other great shots that I had never seen before of me and my family.
Here, a young Kermit plays Peek a Boo for Dad the Cameraman!
Recently, we brought everything I had saved from everywhere to one spot and began the process of trying to organize things in some fashion. I can’t believe all that I’ve collected over the years and now realize I will need more space to properly store it. It’s amazing how seeing items can bring back a flood of memories.
I will continue to collect stuff for my personal archives as well as for Fantasy of Flight and am beginning to think there will always be job security for my archivist!
Kermit