01/25/2026
My family history and current events feel like they’re colliding this week and I thought I’d share.
My husband and I collected thousands of slides from my parents’ basement recently and we’ve been scanning them over the past week. Family gatherings in the 60s, my Dad going to prom, then on a mission trip to Africa in ‘65, marching with Martin Luther King Jr and James Meredith in the South in ‘66, going to Vietnam as a medic ‘67-‘69. I found slides from 1969 labeled “Anti-Vietnam Protest Springfield College” from when he came back home.
What a decade the 60s were. What a history filled decade to live through, such difficult times. What a time to live in our current one.
Most of these photos my Dad took on the ‘66 March… which research tells me must have been the “March Against Fear”, Memphis to Jackson Mississippi. The third and fourth photos I took September 2025
1. is a line of cops with guns
2. is of MLK Jr giving a speech
3. is of my Dad, Mom, Andy & Eddie the day before my Dad passed away. Behind him just happens to be a family heirloom (that exact slide hasn’t popped up yet) it’s MLK Jr walking pretty close to where my Dad took the photo.
The rest of the photos are in a random order of the March. Not pictured was a time a tent they were in was tear gassed. I remember him telling me that story.
Jump to present day: the thought of citizens peacefully assembling, marching, demonstrating in response to authorities that are not on the right side of things felt so appropriate to share to today. I’m so glad that we’re digging into this family history (also for my boys to really see our family connection to the past) Bittersweet this feels a few months too late, but here we are moving forward with what we have.
🕊️✌️peace & love to you all