This is a photo I took of my dad while desperately trying to earn my camera badge in Girl Scouts.
Dad loved taking photos so much that he built a darkroom that took up half the space in his and Mom's bedroom.
He made backwards movies that Aggles and I starred in. He filmed us jumping off the tops of swing sets. He filmed us stuffing waffles in our mouths. Things like shuffling cards and throwing them up in the air. Then he would run the movie backwards and it would look like we were flying up to the top of the swing set, vomiting the waffle back out to its picture perfect state, etc.
I drew all over everything. Dad ended up painting one whole wall of my bedroom with dark green paint so I could use the whole wall as a blackboard. Here's my favorite memory about the big drawing space:
One night Dad drew a man's face in profile on the wall for me.
Me: But where's the other eye?
Dad: What?
Me: Where's the other eye? A face has two eyes.
Dad: Well yes, but look! (He turned sideways to show me how when someone is in profile, you see only one eye.) How many eyes do you see?
Me: TWO!
I knew that a face had 2 eyes and at that age I saw two eyes. I love remembering this episode because it's such a clear example of how what you see is so connected to what you think.
Dad died when he was 48 and I was 12.
