When my brother, sister, and I were young, my father bought a video camera. He taped us all as we grew up. A few years ago, he gathered all the tapes into a single collection. It is both good and bad that he did this. Good because it is a wonderful family record. But bad because these tapes can be very embarrassing. You watch them and you think, “God, did I really wear THAT striped shirt with THOSE yellow shorts? I NEVER cut my hair that way!” Yet you cannot deny these unfortunate things--you’re seeing them right there on the TV, after all. So the real question becomes, “What do these things mean?” Then, and now. A striped shirt, yellow  shorts, and a haircut that looks like a dead animal: a dollar for any man who can connect those dots.
This is a gathering of a man’s family, and his stuff, and the people he knows. Welcome to the party.

Tom Dugdale