Retro. 1958 according to the drugstore print stamp. So I was 14 and testing flash (#6 flashbulbs). Yes one shot and then you had to change the bulb. My friends yes sipping cokes at our junior high school dance in the steel mill town of Warren, Ohio. My family had moved from the all white preppy/tourist/military Va. Beach, Va community seen in my previous post to a culturally mixed steel mill town in the rust belt. Bam! I was pretty much rejected by the white kids because I was a “new kid” and definitely not cool. Braces etc. My classmates included Poles, Italians, and blacks. It was the black boys who took me “in”. One of them, Wayne ( last name not remembered) was also interested in photography and we were the only two kids who used the school darkroom which was somehow part of shop class. I’m cruising through my retro pictures now for my second book project tentatively titled “Off For A Family Drive”. I hate the word “retrospective” and generally don’t like retrospectives nor “best of” books , so I will just try to turn this flash back flash forward book into a kind of photo novel. Not linear. Past and present mixed. That’s how I see life anyway. Why I’m working on BeachGames and this life novel simultaneous I have no idea. Nobody should try two books simultaneous. One of them will inevitably take over. This photo novel is a monumental task and BGames is simply a zine. Yet even a simple zine isn’t simple. Anyway, home alone no distractions no party and digging deep.