Remembering

Last Sunday I posted an entry using my family’s Bible to recognize the observance of Remembrance Sunday. Today, celebrating both Remembrance Day (UK, Canada, and Australia) and Veteran’s Day  (United States) I’m sharing a bit of history about this small camera, a 1930’s vintage Kodak. It has a unique place in my collection, a gift from a friend who knew it would receive the care and regard it deserves while in my care.

You know I like to name my cameras so, for the purpose of this travelogue, I’ll call him Skip.

As my friend tells the story, Skip was purchased in the late 30’s by her father and the two of them traveled throughout the western US until his enlistment and the outbreak of the Second World War. In the Navy they spent the duration on ships in the Pacific Theater of the war and Skip recorded life aboard ship and ashore in China, the Philippines, Seattle WA, and Victoria BC where a budding romance with my friends’s mother, who was serving in the Coast Guard, began.

Civilian life meant Skip took pictures, now color slides, of urban life and family travels and by the mid 60’s had been passed on to the next generation, recording “teenage caravans” (my friend's term) and surviving adventures that included a runaway horse and a climb to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park.

If you’re like me and come across an old camera, you wonder and perhaps imagine the stories it could tell of the things it has seen through the lens. In this case, thanks to my friend, I don’t have to wonder.

Honoring the memories and sacrifice this day represents and all who served ... Peace