Slideshow

My mom grew up with a career Navy Dad who then became a career IBM man. I think it's needless to say that they traveled a lot.

One of the thrills for me, growing up, was when people came to visit & my Granddaddy set up the slide projector. I've seen the slides thousands of times and never tire of them.

It would never fail. In the middle of a "tour" of France or Italy, suddenly, a slide of me would pop up. When I'd see it, I'd start to cringe knowing what was coming. That slide was one of three.

Three slides of me at age one or so. Coming out of the bath. With only a towel wrapped around me. That first slide was innocent enough. Oh, how cute! The next slide shows the towel starting to move away from my body. Um, what am I doing??? And that third slide is nothing but me! Me, an exhibitionist. And that's the slide that my Granddaddy's slide projector would always get stuck on. My family would giggle and proclaim how cute it was. I, being a young girl & then a teenager, would want to die of embarrassment. This was before something like that would be called child pornography.

But, heaven forbid if that series of slides weren't in queue for viewing!

By the time I met Big D, the slide watching days were over. Everyone had seen them umpteen times. It was a hassle getting it all together. Slides were outdated and slide projectors hard to fix.

Big D sure heard about them. Every visit, my Granddaddy has something to say about them. Big D was beginning to think they were imaginary.

One visit, however, we walked in and the slide projector was set up. I knew what was coming. Big D knew what was coming. It started out as usual. Regular slides of the kids growing up, slides of the places they've lived & visited. Then, out of the blue, there was me. Big D's face lit up & he rubbed his hands. Once my Granddaddy fixed the projector so it wasn't "stuck" on me, Big D looked at me as it to say: "What? That's what all the hoopla was about?" I'm not sure what exactly he was expecting...

I haven't thought about those slides in many years. My grandparents are at the age where they are downsizing. They are giving away all their things. Even when that started, I didn't think about the slides. We went to a cousin's wedding in October and that's when the slides hit me. I asked about them but my Granddaddy has no idea where they are. He gave some here & there.

My mission in 2009 is to find those three slides of me.