What did you find in Mom and Dad's closet?

[SteveNU]

Going through some old slides that were in the closet at my mom's house and found these gems. Dad worked for NASA and he took these pics back in 1962 at Edwards Air Force Base. He was working on the X15 with Neil Armstrong as the pilot.

 

[HawkeyeNFO]

Awesome! Great finds....thanks for sharing these.

 

[DrRoy]

Love the aeronautical history.

 

[Walt34]

Nice photos! I've long been a fan of just about anything aviation related.

BTW, it is an easy task in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements to correct the color shifting. If you don't want to take the time to learn how to do it or don't know any hobbyist photographers, any pro photographer could do it for a minimal fee. And the current papers and inks used by pros will last much longer. Stay away from chains like CVS, Target, Walmart, etc. as they use automated systems that don't always get optimal results.

 

[SteveNU]

Nice photos! I've long been a fan of just about anything aviation related.

BTW, it is an easy task in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements to correct the color shifting. If you don't want to take the time to learn how to do it or don't know any hobbyist photographers, any pro photographer could do it for a minimal fee. And the current papers and inks used by pros will last much longer. Stay away from chains like CVS, Target, Walmart, etc. as they use automated systems that don't always get optimal results.

These are the original scans, unprocessed in Photoshop. I'll clean them up later. Interesting to note that the ones developed in March and April are the ones that have the color shift and they say Ektachrome. The ones in May which are clear say Kodachrome II.

There are other slides and three boxes of pictures, books and other papers. I wish I could have gone through this stuff when he was alive and heard the stories behind the pictures!

 

[Walt34]

Interesting about the Ektachrome and Kodachrome II. I have a bunch of slides from the 60's and 70's that I shot in Kodachrome and they haven't faded or color shifted at all. My avatar is from one of those slides.

 

[Souschef]

My Dad passed away in 2003, and I went back East with my older son for the funeral. My Mom died in 2015 at the age of 102 two days after my sister and I were there for her birthday.
I flew back East for Mom's funeral, and on the way to the cemetery, my niece gave me a CD.
Much to my surprise and delight, it was a recording of an interview she had done some years earlier with both my Mom and Dad.
They talked about their early days and how my Dad had to finish our home after the builder went bust.
Some time before she died, my Mom gave me some pictures of Mom, Dad, and me in a sailboat he built. My DW thought I looked cute in my little sailor hat.

 

[meierlde]

Re slides fading the worst was eastman color film which was used to make copies of slides such as in purchased slide sets. 40 year old etachrome still works, ok and 60 year old kodachrome also works ok (kodachrome was known to be the most stable).
The other alternative for faded photos is just to photoshop them to black and white. I have some purchased slides my grandfather bought in 1961 in Rome and they are all shades of pink when scanned. Note that movie studios had the same problem with 35 mm movies of that vintage.

 

[CaptTom]

Amazing to think how much history is being lost every day to faded photos.

Not to mention the stories of our parents' generation.

Then again, digital photos are lost as soon as they scroll off the page on FaceBook, never to be looked at again. Kinda sad.

DD recently asked us for pictures of the g'kids for some school thing. She never had a film camera and has no pictures of them when they were little. But, you know, that's what grandparents are for

 

[Souschef]

A week ago we got together with my wife's 2 sons and DIL's for Mother's Day. Since my wife was the picture taker in the family, there were very few of her.
I found about 3 dozen photos i had taken of her, printed them, and put them in small albums for both boys.
They really appreciated them.

 

[Tetto]

Going through some old slides that were in the closet at my mom's house and found these gems. Dad worked for NASA and he took these pics back in 1962 at Edwards Air Force Base. He was working on the X15 with Neil Armstrong as the pilot.

View attachment 25960View attachment 25961View attachment 25962View attachment 25964View attachment 25965

Wow! This is historical gold; I worked in aviation for years and this is the stuff that makes me love it all over again. Great photos but more importantly, your Dad was there and involved. Way cool.

 

[SteveNU]

Yes, 60 years from now what will our children find from their past? Some old DVDs that may or may not be readable, a flash drive or hard drive with files that may not be accessible any more. I worry about preserving these memories and have so far with the 20 years of digital photos we have. But when I'm gone what will become of them? I constantly nag the kids to backup their photos but I know they don't worry much about it.

 

[Bamaman]

Only thing I found was about 1000 jelly jars left in a closet. I'd hate to think how many bread loaves it took to use that much jelly for breakfast every morning.

It won't beat my aunt's balls and balls of rubber bands held together by rubber bands--or all the used and washed sheets of aluminum foil being kept for future use.

I love the above slides on aviation. I have a close buddy that was the SR71 pilot that made the coast to coast flight speed record--on the SR71's last flight before going to the Smithsonian Museum. I love talking to ex-military pilots and support staff.

 

[aja8888]

I was hoping to find my baseball card collection from the 1960's that I left at home when I went into the military in 1964. But it wasn't there. A few of the Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams cards would have funded my college tuition.

 

[GravitySucks]

Wow. Great photos.
I won't tell you what I found in my Dads sock drawer when I was 12, but it was less impressive than this but changed my world.

 

[donheff]

Very nice find. By the way, once you have scanned them into your PC it is easy to recover a lot of the original color with easy levels and curves adjustments in photoshop or various free image editing programs. Brings those faded oldies to life.

 

[Bir48die]

porn

 

[Redbugdave]

Steve...I was at Edwards AFB when your Dad was there. I was 7 years old and remember seeing the X15 and a landing or two on the salt flats runway. My father was career Air Force. I also remember the sonic booms, our house on base, and the desert. I remember seeing the XB-70 Valkyrie flying around. Funny the things you remember as a kid. Your Dad was part of some of the greatest times of Air Force history and the beginning of the Space Age. Looking at someone old...you do not know the history they lived and were a part of. You are really lucky to have those pictures.

 

[Tadpole]

Too bad no one found all those used and still missing drier sheets.

 

[Koolau]

Not in the closet, but in the basement: My dad had US silver coins hidden all over the house. When he passed and the house was for sale, I made one last check in the basement and found a bag of silver dollars (maybe a couple of hundred) in a bag in an old concrete block wall. The rest of his coins, my mom and I had found (at least we thought so) and put them in a safe deposit box (way too heavy for mom to move.) Anyway, I still have ALL the coins and hope my DW or kids find them at the right time, heh, heh.

 

[Ally]

I found that my parents had never unpacked the boxes and trunks from their own parents after their deaths. So we found a treasure trove of old photos and memories.

My favorite thing was finding all the letters my mom wrote daily to my grandma after she left in the first group of Navy Waves to be trained as officers at Smith College. She wrote all during her training and later assignment to the Bureau of Ordnance. The letters also included her courtship with my dad and up to their marriage. I made copies for my brothers and children. I wished I could have discussed them with her.

 

[calico1597]

Dad had a tool box in the closet. I found over $12K in cash and $10K in travelers checks. Mom said, oh, I had forgot about the travelers checks........These are the same people who kept $75K in a non-interest checking account. Because you just never know when you need to write a big check.......

He also did metal detecting, there was a couple hundred dollars in dirty pennies. I had to wash them before the bank would accept them.

 

[48Fire]

My wife found some paper work, showing that her Dad was previously married and divorced.

 

[braumeister]

A number of photos from Mom's time as a WAC in 1944-45.
She was 5' 2" and they made her a truck driver, which she absolutely loved. Had to sit on two telephone books to see over the steering wheel.

Later she became the driver for high ranking officers and got propositioned more than once, but married my PFC dad anyway.

Here she is on her truck in 1944.

Yeah, I know, "Your mother wears Army boots!"

 

[athena53]

Another find in the spirit of Memorial Day, but from DH: after he died last year, I found a faded chambray shirt in one of our closets. It had obviously been washed a few hundred times but still had his name on the pocket, a Contract Number inside the collar instead of a manufacturer's name, and two stripes on the left sleeve.

DH's career in the Navy was short and unremarkable- it was between the wars and he worked as an electronics technician on aircraft. He did have some good stories, though, especially about his days living in Argentia, Newfoundland.

I had no idea he'd kept it- it must be 50 years old by now. I offered it to my stepson, who was happy to get it.