I didn’t feel like I was back in the darkroom of Pali High. I felt like Scotty beaming someone up from a planet to the Enterprise or like Dr. Frankenstein bringing life to his monster…Energize. I’m resurrecting pieces of my childhood. My mom gave me 2 photo albums recently. One had early photos of my brother Allan and one had photos of me. In the back of “Teddy’s” album there were some old negatives that I shot with of my first camera. Based on my examination of the negatives I was 7 or 8 years old.  I forget what kind of camera it was. It may of been an Argus. My brother and I had identical cameras.  I tell my kids that my brother and I shared everything, that we didn’t each get an exact replica of the same gift. I’m a big fat liar. The differences were subtle. Allan got the green Rat Fink Hot Wheel and I got the purple one, he got the red suited Major Matt Mason (Capt. Storm I believe his name was) and I got the Matt Mason in the white space suit, Allan got the cassette deck and I got the 8 Track. You get the idea, Even Steven.

Using a loop to look at the scratchy negatives my mind seeps slowly with memories of these early images spark. I actually remember shooting these picture. These early images are my early memories. I almost expect to find a picture of my mom driving our car up Gramatin Avenue the day President Kennedy was shot. But no. These pictures are a bit more personal but life shaping nonetheless for me. There’s Carl Bocchino our next door neighbor popping wheelies on his stingray, our 1968 Pontiac Le Mans with Landau roof before it withered away in the scorching Florida sun.

There’s a couple of shots of a fort we built in Carls’ yard, a portrait of my mom and dad, shots of Allan clowning around, pictures of clouds, trees, alligators, a bell and a license plate. Each image a time release capsule into my early years.

I’m sitting here in our messy office and I look beyond the edge of my monitor and see Sam doing his physics homework, getting ready to go off to college next year and Henry doing a report on Paul Revere. Theo, Ollie and Simon are outside. They built a ramp out of scrap wood and are jumping it with their bikes, scooters and skateboards. I’m staring at these images, trying to look beyond their edges… just a few inches to see a little more of the past.