SERIOUS BOUTS OF NOSTALGIA

Over the past several months my brother has been shipping my personal items I had stored in his basement. My cranium has been flooded with memories; some bad but mostly good.  One package in particular I was anticipating; my dad’s old 35mm camera. The unit with all the accessories arrived via the freight forwarder a couple of days ago and I’m dusting off that part of my brain that used to know how to operate a SLR with an external light meter.

My intention is to retrace my father’s foot steps and to take photos from approximately the same place he did and create BEFORE and AFTER photos of locations here in Panama.  It should make for some interesting contrasts.

Before that happens I need to burn a dozen rolls of film to retrain and renew my basic knowledge of photography.

Another item in those ‘Surprise boxes’ was my notebook from when I attended auction school many years ago.  I was in a class with 32 other guys. 9/5/78.  WESTERN COLLEGE OF AUCTIONEERING.   During a six week course, we were taught through a basic training intensity to become auctioneers.  Twenty-two instructors were involved with our learning process.

I mention this why?  Because I’m still capable of performing an auction (I did a charity auction a few years ago).  The lessons learned and the discipline required to learn this craft have helped me immensely throughout my business career and now my writing career. The technique I learned coupled with some other aspects of my experience has culminated in a new form of learning; specifically a method to teach languages.

More on this subject later.