The Lost Porsche - Part 3

[mtdrift]

The slides are rolling in - and I just... I can't. Marvel at it.

Yeah, that's my grandfather with the shit-eating grin in the foreground. He knew what was up. This photo was taken in what was then Yugoslavia in 1957. Maybe in Split?

The fate of this 356 is not a happy story, but let us revel in its better days for just a while.

[CaptDale - is secretly British]

Beautiful slides

[mtdrift]

@captdale-is-secretly-british I'm just blown over by them. It's such a treasure trove.

[CaptDale - is secretly British]

@mtdrift Reminds me I need to get the old film projector running so I can go through my great grandfather's home videos

[mtdrift]

@captdale-is-secretly-british Do it! It's so rewarding - we have such a disconnect from our ancestors these days. With a lot of these slides, I'm learning that even the documents of their mundane daily life lets in a little bit of light on my family's history.

[phenotyp]

@mtdrift The life I still aspire to.
Effin gorgeous, all of these pictures. Thanks for sharing them!

[phenotyp]

@mtdrift I have a duffel bag of slides that I rescued from my grandparents’ house. Family trips from the 60s-80s, archaeological trips all around the Mediterranean (both sides), Moscow in the early 80s, and just the mundane around-the-house stuff.
I need a good scanner that I can load up and automate.

[CaptDale - is secretly British]

@mtdrift said in The Lost Porsche - Part 3:

@captdale-is-secretly-british Do it! It's so rewarding - we have such a disconnect from our ancestors these days. With a lot of these slides, I'm learning that even the documents of their mundane daily life lets in a little bit of light on my family's history.

Yeah exactly. And he had such a huge influence on my childhood I want to see what he thought was important.

[mtdrift]

@phenotyp Oh shit, do it sooner rather than later - we've discovered that those slides will disintegrate over time. The slides we found from 1952 and 1953 just physically crumbled when we opened the box, gone forever. Your local public or university library (if it's actually open) will often have a dedicated and professional slide scanner that can convert slide film to whatever electronic format you desire in very short order.

Home scanning solutions are available on Amazon, but they take forever because you can only do a few at a time.

[mtdrift]

@phenotyp Also, as an anthropologist by trade, I am very interested by the archaeology angle....

[phenotyp]

@mtdrift I know— they’ve all been well-stored over the years, but they won’t last forever. I looked into some scanners a couple years ago, but was never able to commit to the time or the drive space I’d need to complete it, so... I still haven’t.
This is a good kick in the ass.

[Superdave847]

@mtdrift Thank you for sharing this gems. What color is that? Albert blue?

[WhoIsTheLeader]

It continues! These are quite a treat on what has proved to be a long and rather taxing night. I should get back to work but I just can't stop looking at these. Got any idea of the locations in some of these? In many of them, the Porsche looks surprisingly shiny for being mid road trip. Must have stopped to get it washed pretty often.

I love the one with the Yugoslavian people all posing and looking at the Porsche. I know I'd want to get my photo taken with that.

Uh oh, foreboding ending. I'll wait to find out what happened to it though.

[mtdrift]

@superdave847 The hivemind has concluded it's Aquamarine Blue Metallic, a specific color for 1956 (this car's year) and 1957.

[Superdave847]

@mtdrift Nice. That’s a great color! I love this thread—keep sharing!

[mtdrift]

@whoistheleader Yes, we're working on data for dates and locations - they went to some pretty off-the-grid locations given the time frame in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Austria, Switzerland.

My grandfather was an OCD kind of guy, so I can imagine frequent washings of the Porsche were in order. And, I bet given the economic context at the time, there were plenty of enterprising youths who were happy to wipe down a car like this for a few dollars.

[WhoIsTheLeader]

@mtdrift I bet given the exchange rates both would be happy with the exchange. It's impressive how clean the car is in many of these photos even when snow is present.

They really went all over, didn't they? I bet they had some real stories to tell. Shame so many have probably been lost. That time and place is one of my favorite for just how different everything worked. The iron curtain is one of my favorite things to dive into the history of.

Well, Civil War and railroad history local to my area is pretty fascination too. I live very close to the starting point of the Great Locomotive Chase so that was definitely a factor.

[Shop-Teacher]

@mtdrift Woooow! These are fantastic!

[Bloody-the-resident-LandRover-apologist]

@mtdrift said in The Lost Porsche - Part 3:

@phenotyp Also, as an anthropologist by trade, I am very interested by the archaeology angle....

Man, I was so close to pursing Anthropology as my major after taking Anthropology 101 freshmen year but I let my parents talk me out of it. As a kid I loved the National Geographic specials on various tribes/cultures around the world the most.

[davesaddiction]

@mtdrift Moved to Best of OPPO.