For those not familiar with the term, the phrase BUDDY SYSTEM refers to having a friend who shares the same interests and is willing to provide the support needed to overcome obstacles when reaching for a similar goal. I have employed that system in my classroom for most of the 28 years I have taught. That system was brought to mind as I opened an e-mail from a friend. She reminded me that it was BUDDY DAY on the internet and she is my internet buddy. Come to think of it I have quite a few buddies. One of them that comes to mind is Gerry. I would not have achieved my goals of scanning black and white negatives had it not been for Gerry Balzer. Of course I didn’t have that goal until I found a cigar box full of black and white negatives stashed away with other memorabilia in the attic. When I told Gerry about the find he knew immediately what could be done with finds like that. Like Clarence, Gerry is a mathematician and like Clarence, Gerry facilitates that side of the brain that usually remains idle in my head. When I float around in realms of creativity, talking about composition, color, and ascetic values; when at times I lose my sense of reality, and mess up all computer functions, Gerry is there on the other end of the phone line. There is something about the way he responds to my calls for help. There is that gentle voice that YEEES with a slight lilt in the middle of it, the kind of one-word response that induces a certain sense of confidence. Of course after that there is the lesson to be learned, a recipe on how to overcome an obstacle, and each one grounded in reason and rationale. If Clarence taught me the limitations of creating pictures as big as a house. Gerry very patiently taught me the importance of relativity when it comes to size. As usual with lessons like that, equipment changes. A new scanner moved in; one that is capable of scanning negatives of all sizes. Gerry taught me patiently the difference that made the new scanner necessary. Not only was it impressively larger, it also had a light source in the lid. Those of us who were around to take pictures in black and white with a good-sized camera recall the size of a black and white negative. Size wise it was referred to as 120, the other size being 35. As far as the buddy-system is concerned, Gerry became the buddy who helped me to decode and develop all those black and white negatives, at least most of them.

“Be sure you have the negative in there properly; with the dull side up.”

“Why?”

“Because the scanning array is in the bottom of the scanner!”

That took a little interpreting. My mind was accustomed to comprehending bits and pieces and things like that. When the buddy is an aeronautical engineer, bits and pieces are meaningless. Nonetheless he patiently explained to me about the importance of light source. Eventually he was able to make me understand the importance of starting to work on a picture as big as a house and gradually bringing it down to a size that could be accommodated by the computer.

With Gerry’s help I learned to understand the relationship of size and resolution. Now my brain develops as much clout in one hemisphere as there is in the other. In other words my brain became ambidextrous.

t pays to have a buddy capable of inspiring self esteem as well as self confidence. What my husband had observed in his travels as a member of the Military Police, riding the rails in France, is now admired by all who have the courage to enter the swamp (Def. of SWAMP; That little 8x10 space that serves as my office). What his picture tells me is that life goes on in spite of devastating wars and conquests. That picture was taken in 1946. The ancient Roman Aqueduct looks down as it were, in quiet contemplation, upon the French country side where soil and sun cause crops to ripen; food for the hungry people who have survived war, disease, disaster, death and hunger through seemingly countless periods of history. My husband was a very private person. I would not have known anything about pictures taken by the man I married and lived with for half a century, had it not been for Gerry’s patient ways of teaching me how to use those miraculous devices of the 21 st century. THANK YOU GERRY!