Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on me

Ethel – Sam Scolnick       Anna – Sam Sanders

Arthur                          Diane (‘the big “D”‘)

Dan                                         Laura

June 10th Epilogue

Arthur, My dad, bought a very fine Nikon in the ’60’s.  State of the art 35 mm SLR.  Multiple lenses.  He taught me how to use it.  We had a darkroom in the basement.  I went on to take photography and film (video) in college.  Dad/Arthur used to make photo-essays of his travels.  the slides and projector are with my sister.  In those days it was Kodachrome, Ectachrome, no internet or computers.  No blogs.  so the narrative he would do live and that is forever lost to childhood memories.

Arthur died in 1986 from malignant lung cancer at 46 years old.  He was a smoker.  He was a leader and man of action.   Apparently, Arthur joined this trip long before it started.  Izzy took some photography courses and her dad/Ray bought her a Nikon.  The photographs she produced make the photos I take look like the snapshots of a rank amateur.  Part is the camera, but the other part is raw talent, which obviously skipped a generation.

Part of the Hawaii experience is the scale and the contrasts.  there are times where it feels like what you’re eyes are seeing is not real, it’s a surrealistic, impressionistic painting before you.  If some of the pictures appear photoshopped, then Izzy has captured that feeling one gets while standing in these places of contrasts.

Here are  great pictures from izzy and amity from their trail hike. these pictures continue where the photo of the beginning of the trail in the previous post end:

Ray at near certain “drowning depth”* on Ke’ e beach.

The first steps look easy but uncomfortable.

Wilderness is an understatement.

200 feet in or so the trail gets more difficult.  This is the part that convinced me to bring along walking sticks.

The Napali Coast

Doesn’t it look like Paul and Amity are photoshopped in?

Looking down on Ke’e Beach

That little dot on the beach is Ray.

Red Clay Along the Trail

Mission:WHALE – check

REFERENCES.

Title:  “Truckin”, Grateful Dead

“Certain Drowning Depth” – ‘How to be a Jewish Mother’ – “you don’t have to be jewish or a mother to be a jewish mother”.

The man on the left (with the bulldog pipe) is Arthur (daddy), less than two years before his death.  The man on the Right is Sam Scolnick, his father.  To the left of Sam is Ed Flower, one of my fathers (and the families) closest friends.

Arthur arranged fishing trips once a year in Maine.  He was responsible for all those smiles.  This may have been one of the few times that Sam Scolnick smiled.  While Sam (grandpa) never complained, he was trapped in a miserable marriage for over 61 years.  The only thing I remember his saying was: “Ethel, Quit your bitching.”

Genetically, Arthur contributed big flat feet and green eyes to the family gene pool.  He had a steadfast moral compass.  I’m sure he lived to regret that he taught me to always question authority, that life and moral questions do not have black and white answers.  The questions and philosophical discussions are important; answers are always suspect.

Arthur taught me to develop film (now archaic) in his dental office darkroom.  Arthur went above and beyond.  He had a unique empathy for people and animals – he performed dentistry on police dogs and experimented with implants in humans decades before anyone even knew of the term.  Later he built a darkroom in the basement of the house in Dix Hills.  Izzy has his feet (sorry izzy – so do I) and his photography skills.  While Arthur was a Dentist, and founder of the Suffolk County Dental Society, he was an authority on history and wanted to be a history professor when he retired.  In reality, he was a fisherman (fly fishing – he tied his own flies).