I’d intended to write something and have it ready for Father’s Day this year. Unfortunately, it didn’t get started until today.

What I wanted to share is that while we’ve been close over the years, we’d reached a habit where we would only get in touch by phone every few months. That’s really changed over the last year or so. I’d say we’re talking about once a week.

The Mediterranean slides

Our conversational uptick started with him sending a bunch of Kodachrome slides for me to scan. They were taken at various places where he’d been on shore leave while he was serving in the Marines. He’d been on two Mediterranean cruises in the late 1950s. I remembered those slides being stored in a closet at our (Mom’s) house. I’d occasionally looked at them by holding them up to the light and wondered about the stories behind them. I didn’t have an easy way to discuss the slides with him as my parents had separated. At some point in those early years the slides were mailed to him.

I was glad to scan the slides on my Canon MP990 and get a really good look at the details contained in them. The next thing I wanted to do was have him tell me all about them. There must have been a zillion questions. Since we live several states apart, discussing them had some difficulties. Thankfully we both have access to computers and Skype. When it’s working right, I can show him the slides from my end and listen to him describe the story behind it. We can also turn it around where I can see his screen and can discuss what he wants to show me.

Skype

We can both attest to a steep learning curve in being able to just connect over Skype. It takes a certain amount of setup on both sides to get the connection working smoothly. My webcam and audio hardware has been flaky on this side, making things difficult. He’s got some computer support from local family that keeps him on the internet. I’m thankful for that. This would be impossible otherwise. Our first five sessions were at least a half hour of setup with one hour of discussion. I think the hardest part was teaching the language of computer use when you can’t see what the other person is seeing on their laptop screen. I’m happy to say that we’ve now accomplished building the bridge so that we can meet and share on a regular basis.

Back to those slides

I learned a lot about his travels in the Marines. He answered my questions about the places and people, telling stories as we went along. I was glad to hear him recall these things that were stored away in his head and would otherwise not have come out unless I’d asked. I do feel some of it might have been lost if I’d not started asking the questions.

My goal with the slides is to document the stories and subjects in a flickr photo album. He allowed me to make audio recordings our discussions so that I can be sure to get the details when I go back to write the photo descriptions. Another remaining step will be to arrange the slides in the right order. We’re going to keep the album private for now. Eventually we’ll be able to share the private link with others. I also think we might copy all of the photos and text into a hard-bound Shutterfly book when we’re done.

Part of the work we did involved identifying and locating some of the cities he’d visited. We mapped those out in Google Earth to help me develop a mental picture of the places he’d been. I can tell you that using the street view feature to land at the spot where one of those old photos was taken is exhilarating!

Dad’s blog

I’d say we’ve spent about a year getting to the point where we can move on to setting up another project: His blog. He can that carry on in parallel as I wrap up the slide project.

Several years ago, Dad had been working with a writing group. He was writing pieces on nature and his recollections from growing up. Recently he’d mused about getting back to writing “his memoirs”. I suggested he might consider a blog, but with much of the work remaining private as we work on the details. A free WordPress account pretty much is all that is needed for that. The works-in-progress can hang around forever in the drafts until they get enough shine to be published. Multiple editors can contribute and modify the posts on a particular blog.

He’d emailed and snail-mailed several stories to me in years past. As it is between us, we save each other’s correspondence. I typed in what I had into draft posts and we started going over those, releasing some items right away in the first few days. Now we Skype, sharing the screen of a draft being edited while the other comments or guides.

Going Forward

I think we’ve really become more connected by sharing these stories. Its a great collaboration in this time of isolation during the pandemic. Our discussions often lead us off on tangents to other topics, and those are interesting too. Here, I’ve been describing capturing his ideas, but this has definitely not been one-way transfer. He’s also hearing about my own blog work and the adventures of our household.