Slides

It took a little digging to get beyond the definition of “slide” as a movement or slippery surface in the app Dictionary.com. What I was looking for was the definition of a photograph slide. I came upon this: “a small glass plate for mounting specimens to be examined under a microscope.”

A single slide.

That must be where the name for the pictures we took with a 35mm camera came from. The development process produced small square cardboard frames encapsulating a negative. When you shine a light through the negative an image projects onto a screen. 

Getting set up for a slideshow.

There were a few years in the 80’s when we took slides (we also have a few slides from my childhood when my parents also took slides.)

Then there were many years we simply took photographs and had them printed out. I dutifully put them in to photo albums (chronologically).

A few of my photo albums on the closet shelf.

For several years now we’ve taken digital photos, and our pictures are on our phones or “in the cloud”… How does one keep them all in order?

Looking at our photo albums is the most fun…it’s easy; holding the photos albums and turning the pages is enjoyable and…it doesn’t require any set up. But every so often we decide to look at our slides, as we did the other night.

Our Kodak Carousel Projector.

We set up the old screen which is still in very good condition, we got out the vintage slide projector (the light bulb still worked – yay) and brought up our many carousal slide trays and other miscellaneous boxes of slides.

Our boxes of slide trays for the projector.

We did have fun looking at old pictures. Plus, we took our time so we could do some organizing and purging. This is not a one evening process. It is time consuming.

My attempt at organizing the slides we viewed.

Soon we will tuck everything away again, until the next time we decide to take a trip down memory lane by viewing our slides. Hopefully the slideshow will be even better with only the best slides to be viewed.

10 thoughts on “Slides”

  1. I can only imagine the joy in looking at these slides which hold family memories.

    I’ve been sorting through my mom’s stash of photo albums, pulling out the pix and dividing them among my siblings and others. It’s been quite the process, completed now.

    1. What an accomplishment for you to get through your mom’s photos. That is a big job.
      My brother did our mother’s. I was grateful.

  2. Oh, that brought back memories when my dad took so many slides! We periodically had a ‘slide showing evening’ which was fun! Photo albums abound in my house and now and then such fun to go through. Great article Valerie!

    1. Do you still have the slides Shirley? Slideshows can be made into a fun event. I’m glad you have fond memories of them.

  3. That used to be part of our New Years… looking back 10 years. It’s been a long time since we’ve done that…

  4. Oh Valerie, I’d like to talk to you about how to display slides!! I have a ton of them from my dad and our childhood home, and I’d love to view them. Sometime we’ll talk about that! Glad you shared this!

    1. Angie…you are welcome to borrow the projector and screen…you’d just need a carousel.

  5. Oh my gosh, what a walk down memory lane! Both with the slides themselves and the pictures from past family events. I bet that was a fun evening.

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