Memories

While in Johannesburg, we descended on my wife’s parents. A suggestion was made that we eat in the restaurant on site in the complex where they stay. Rude son in law that I am, I proposed an alternative, ‘how about we eat at your place’. I thought that my proposal was rather attractive, especially seeing as my mother in law is a great cook. To sweeten the deal, I offered to clean up afterwards. This was probably the clincher!

Our arrival at their place was conjoined with inspiration. For all the years that I can remember, my father in law has been talking about the thousands of brilliant slides packed away in special wooden boxes in his garage. Somehow I badgered him into finding the slides and dusting off the old slide projector. After about 30 minutes of intellectualism, we finally figured out how to get the slide cartridge into the projector. Actually not we, I was clueless, having never worked a slide projector in my life. With much trepidation, the switch was flicked and the projector beamed out a brilliant white light, just as it was supposed to do.

We spent the better part of the day well down memory lane, immersed in family history. A wonderful insight into my wife’s family!

Recently one of my neighbours had requested some help with the scanning and retouching of old black and white photographs. That exercise probably precipitated my own thought on the wealth of photographic material within the family. Now armed with a large suitcase full of these slides, a rather challenging project awaits my attention. Hopefully I have not bitten off more than I can chew, but surely the right time to deal with memories of the past is while everyone is still able to enjoy them, instead of eventually leaving behind a bunch of useless and unappreciated treasures.

And the Steak and Guinness pie was nothing short of exquisite. As is the norm!