Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Past is prologue, especially when it comes to choosing the kinds of vacations you enjoy as well as destinations.
That truth hit hard in recent weeks when I turned our last string of below zero days and nights into a time of rediscovery for me. I did a very brave thing. I dove into the virtually insurmountable task of sifting through dozens of those yellow Kodak boxes, each containing 36 or so images -- slides.
Slides. 35mm transparencies. Those cardboard and plastic squares with a piece of film in them that my grandson looks at and dismisses because he has no interest in looking at any image that can’t be inspected on his phone, or laptop, or desktop, without scanning them.
I have no intention of scanning them all. But if there’s any hope of the best of all those images to survive beyond me, I’ll have to convert them to digital images. I have to at least get a start on the job. It will probably take years of pecking away at the enormous stockpile to get to the bottom. No kidding –– years.
But it’s been so worth it, if for no other reason than to remind me of all the wonderful adventures in my life. That’s especially true for those shared with family and those that bring back wonderful memories of adventures with friends, often including coworkers as well as fellow travel writers and photographers.
I’ve come across some real treasures representing very special moments and experiences that are a certainty never to be repeated. Others conjure dreams of a return trip, perhaps in a different season for a different slate of explorations. I’m blessed that the list is long, and especially happy that there are photos to remind me of the highlights. It’s amazing how much I’ve forgotten, in some cases I had recollection that I was at a certain place at all. But the photos don’t lie, they almost talk you into remembrance.
Like, I’d forgotten that I’d been to the National Bison Range and within minutes of being advised that it’s been years since anyone had seen a rattlesnake, I encountered one – and it was no problem. It didn’t want anything more to do with me than I did with it.
That wasn’t so true with a big male bighorn sheep that I’d been warned loved to charge and ram into vehicles, especially ranger vehicles. Later on that visit he charged my vehicle, but thankfully turned off before damaging my front quarter panel.
Yeah, I know. How do you forget stuff like that. But I had, and it all came back so quickly, thanks to the photos.
That visit to the Bison Range was followed up by wonderful visitors to Glacier National Park and to Chase Lake, the flagship for rejuvenating America’s white pelican population.
The more I dug, the more I realized that there was a progression that had its start in Toledo and visiting family in diverse locations – Chicago, New York, New Jersey and Cajun-country Louisiana. Louisiana was always a special treat, as was El Paso, Texas, and Ruidoso, New Mexico. Travel was either by car, which in the late 50s through the 70s meant long distances on two-lane roads intimately connected with the amazing variety of people and landscapes – a la Route 66, only different. Or by passenger trains, which, in those days, catered to travelers with a range of travel options. My favorite was Pullman cars where I’d be assigned the top bunk. Even now, I love to travel both by car and, when available, passenger trains.
Airplanes, too, but it seems like I’ve logged as many miles in single-engine float planes as passenger jets. Once you jump start a wilderness canoe trip by strapping your canoes on a float plane and immediately immersing yourself in wilderness you’ll never want to do it any other way. And you get a special first-hand look of what the region really looks like, something those topo maps don’t do.
Other than the sheer volume, selecting family photos to be scanned and passed along is easy. Weddings, births, holidays, gatherings, family vacations, graduations – all important life events. The important stuff. The stuff you expect other family members to want.
Much harder to deal with is the miscellaneous. Wildlife images, wildflowers, insects, birds, landscapes – you name it – the stuff from a lifetime of shooting for Metroparks, newspapers, magazines, book publishers, television, yearbooks and so on.
There are images from most of our states and Canadian provinces captured on backpack trips and hikes, shot from canoes, crawfish combines, research vessels and ships, from helicopters, float planes, dog sleds, and while wading in rapids and on oyster reefs.
And pretty much every trip led usually seamlessly to the next. Each was an outgrowth of something that came before.
A hallmark of virtually every trip has been a unique twist to add a special level of interest. Maybe it’s in the mode of transportation, sometimes a unique experience along the way, sometimes an introduction to something that few people get a chance to see, or maybe a chance to see something up close and personal.
Past is prologue, remember.
