Woman Purchases Projector at Goodwill, Searches for Family When She Finds Photos Inside
Some primitive cultures ascribe an almost-mystical might to your average, everyday camera. In fact, if you find yourself in one of these societies, you may want to slowly slide your Nikon back into your backpack.
Why? A few of these cultures believe that the camera has the power to steal one’s soul. It’s a notion that we tend to laugh at.
But we shouldn’t forget that the photos really do have power. Just consider what happened when Kristie Baeumert unearthed some old snaps.
The story started when Baeumert was poking around a Goodwill in Tryone, Georgia. She was in the process of restoring a classic camper and wanted similarly aged goods with which to fill it.
During her search, she stumbled across an Argus 300 Model III slide projector. Think of those old Commodore 64 computers, only boxier and with a lens.
“The outside of the case looked like a vintage item, so I opened it up to peek,” Baeumert told WESH. “I actually discovered the slides when the cashier opened the box when I was paying.”
When she got home, Baeumert fired up the projector and looked at the slides. And those slides seized her imagination.
A young woman in a sun dress lounging against a car. Two young children running down a dirt road, their faces split by giant grins. A jacketed man smiling sheepishly at the camera while another works on a car in the background. Those pictures granted Baeumert a glimpse into another world.
Even more tantalizing than the snaps themselves were the details — or the lack of them. Baeumert could figure out a few niceties.
From the subject matter, it looked as though many of the pictures had been taken during the 1950s. An image of a plane with the words “Wake Island,” a strategic location in the Pacific, gave indication that this might be a military family.
But the rest of the clue remained tantalizingly vague. Only “Kansas” was scrawled on the projector box.
Another photo bore the phrase “Perfect Pic, the best of my baby.” Those hints and the beauty of the family inspired Baeumert to start a search.
“The more I looked at them, the more I wanted to know their story,” said Baeumert. “They should have these memories to pass down and tell their story.”
The Fairburn, Georgia, resident started looking for the family. Alas, Goodwill was entirely unable to help.
North Georgia Goodwill stores receive a mind boggling 2.8 million donations annually. Though they do try to help people looking for missing items, the sheer volume often makes it impossible.
So Baeumert turned to social media, posting the photos to Facebook, and CBS Evening News ran a segment on the projector. Amazingly, that did the trick.
“I spoke with a very lovely woman who asked that the photographs be turned over privately with no media attention,” Baeumert wrote a little more than a month after her original post. “I hope this story inspires people to dust off some boxes in their basements and bring those old memories to life again.”
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