Long, long ago, in one of the far away thrift stores of Denver, Colorado, I spied the unassuming package to your left, the one marked $1.95 in blue grease pencil. It was hanging out on the same shelf as some colorful Aladdin thermoses. My finely honed junking instincts urged me to remove the lid and see what lurked inside: old slides. I held one of them up to the light and found myself staring straight up the large nostrils of Pope John XXIII. Who doesn’t need another Kodachrome of an ascended Pope? So, to that day’s already hefty thrift store scores I added both the thermoses and the Mico-Lite box.

 

As per usual, I stowed my Lucky Finds away into assorted receptacles and forgot all about them. Many moves and many years later, the thermoses and most everything else acquired during those halcyon junk sprees in the shadow of the Rockies were gone, victims of their own bulk. But one rainy day not too long ago I unearthed the Mico-Lite box from the bottom of a beat-up suitcase. I couldn’t remember what was in it — slides, obviously, but slides of what? Oh yeah! The Pope’s nose! Plus, some kitties and daisies and hoop skirts. And a bony-armed woman in 50s clothing? Cool!