Steppin' in a slide zone

Here is another one of those stories from when I was a kid. You people under 40 are just going to have to ride along.

I don't know what age I was -- I know I was older than 6 but younger than 10 -- when my dad first gave a slide show for us kids. We sat in a room off the kitchen, the living room and steps upstairs on the other side (that room was so cool -- it had two doors!). My dad put up the projector screen and then out came the slide projector. It was the wheel-style (or what Don Draper called a carousel). That scene in "Mad Men" brought it all back. I remember the rhythmic clicking as the wheel shifted from slide to slide. I remember watching each slide as if it was a movie and being disappointed when the screen came up blank -- because that was the end of the show.

Slide projectors were quite popular in the '50s and '60s, and I'm sure my parents bought one because that was the thing to do at the time. I've been fascinated by slides ever since (the ones you'd look at under a microscope in biology class were cool, too). My brothers and I saw a slide show maybe only once or twice. And I remember begging my parents to have another slide show a number of times. And wishing there would be a slide show that evening many other times.

But it was only those one or two times. I don't know why. Maybe the projector was a pain to work. Maybe there weren't enough slides. Maybe my parents were bored after going to so many slide-show parties that were all the rage back then.

But my appreciation for slides and slide shows has lasted all this time, as has my disappointment in that no one puts on slide shows anymore.

Even back in 1994, when the above Mike Piazza Slideshow card was issued by Leaf, slides were long past their time.

But I know others are as fascinated by slides as I am, because it has taken me this long to land one of those Slideshow inserts. I once had this very card saved in my COMC cart maybe a year or more ago, and it was swiped away from me.

Fortunately, Angus of Dawg Day Cards went to a card show the day after going to one with me (back-to-back shows, sounds glorious) and found that Slideshow card along with several other Mike Piazza cards.

The Slideshow effect mimics a slide to near perfection, including the date of the photo and the black film for the photo.

Switch to the other side and you have what a slide looked like when you flipped it over. Plus a prescient quote from Frank Thomas. Little did Thomas know about those Fox owners.

When I view this card, I am back in that room off the kitchen (the same room where I watched my first World Series and Super Bowl, by the way). The lights are off and the projector is whirring.

I haven't seen those slides since I was a kid. My mother still has stacks of photo albums, but maybe they converted the slides to pictures. I should ask someday.

Anyway, here are some other Piazza cards from Angus that don't stir nearly as many memories:

He also contributed some other non-Piazza cards. Just a quick look at those:

The Jackie Robinson card comes from the Wrigley Field series from this year. It's the only card from that series that I wanted. The Gary Sutherland '75 buyback takes me to 85 total buybacks from that set. And I've got a few more on the way!

Finally, Angus sent me this Fun Foods pin:

It's from 1984: Ron Cey in the wrong uniform.

However, the last few nights, this Dodger fan has felt a kinship with Cubs fans. We are rooting against the same team and will be again tonight. So I'll abide by this pin for at least another day.

I'll be tuned into games for the rest of the today. Tonight will either continue with the crap that today has been dishing out so far, or be so wonderful that I will wish it had its own slide show.