Completely in the Dark

The man was born to preserve the moment in pictures.

My maternal grandfather, Ray Adams, was an avowed shutterbug. More than a hobby to him, it was an obsession.

Dad once told me that Grandpa Adams had to have every latest gadget, and that included cameras. So when I think of Grandpa, it’s always of him squinting through the viewfinder of a camera, and rarely (as shown at right in his Greensburg, Ind., living room) on the business side of one.

So whether they were visiting our house in Minnesota, or we were staying at their place in Greensburg, you could definitely count on one night solely devoted to The Family Project Slide Show Hour.

I liked it a lot, especially how stories always came with the images. With my other grandfather, Grandpa Maupin, it was always stories and no photos. He couldn’t care a whit about photography. For…