(This image- a “photograph”- surfaced the other day from a tall stack discovered in the Chairman’s debris in the Barn. The image is on shiny paper, produced by a chemical reaction in a tank of noxious fluids. Research indicates the figures are Lenore and George Romney, left and center, and W.E. Reddig, who worked as assistant chief of design at the American Motors Company George ran, 1954-1962. You can see an even older form of imaging in the portrait behind George).
We mentioned the downsizing issue confronting the Boomers who huddle in the morning around the Fire Ring. The image above is just one piece of shiny old photo paper that surfaced. It includes some strange stuff from the late 1960s. Well, we think it was that decade. The Chairman grew up in Michigan, and his family was swept along in the business swirl that turned into politics. First with a new state constitution- the “Con-Con,” or Constitutional Convention, then party politics. That the picture survived the transition from hard-copy America to digital is a little surprising. The image is on something real, shiny physical paper that age and actual handling makes the edges crease or fold over. Unprotected, the dust accumulates and dulls the sharp lines. Many of a certain age lack life-like color. They were also fairly rare, since they required cameras and film to capture, plus the presence of people called “photographers.”
That was before high quality cameras were attached to everyone’s phone and our world became a strange reality show. We are now all digital, all the time, with pictures of plates of food and strange acts of anti-social human behavior. Those things used to just be background to the occasional hard-copy moments. The Chairman has a larger argument about the digital immersion we are experiencing. He claims it is a transition that will be regarded as more profound than the introduction of the automobile or the television. We just don’t know it yet.
The striking figure in the middle of the image is industrialist and former Michigan Governor George Romney. He is flanked on the left by his extraordinary wife Lenore, and former Rambler assistant design chief Bill Reddig on the right. We asked the Chairman about it, since the image makes a long-ago moment seem as vibrant in a new century as it must have been in another one.
Some things have changed. The Chairman claims that George had been President at American Motors, the company that built the Rambler line of “Sensible Spectacular” automobiles. George took that message to the voters and did pretty well with it. As you may be aware, he and Lenore produced a family that includes the Junior Senator from Utah, Willard “Mitt” Romney. You have to stand in awe of the geographic range of the family. They have some partial roots in the Latter Day Saints community in Mexico, George’s time in Michigan business and politics, Mitt’s time as Governor of Massachusetts, failed Presidential candidate and now as junior Senator from Utah.
Some may recall George’s gaffe about “brainwashing” in Vietnam that sunk a Presidential run long ago. Then Lenore’s failed run for the Senate in the Wolverine State. Mitt worked on both those campaigns before moving to Boston and a financial career co-founding Bain capital, one of the prototypical private equity and venture capital firms. Along the way, it included a failed run for the Senate, the successful run for Governor, and a loss for the Presidency.
The Romney family had always maintained close ties to Utah with church ties, but his decision to run for the Senate in 2018 while entering his ’70s demonstrates a commitment to public service. The Chairman smiled at that, having met only the senior but not the junior Romney.
“George was a force of nature. You can see it in that photo. Vibrant. He radiated energy. He has been gone nearly thirty years now, but in life he had a vibrant personal presence. He thought cars could be a little smaller and a little more efficient and thus appeal to the middle class more than the finned monstrosities from GM or Ford. There was something about his physical presence that conveyed an aura of enthusiasm you can almost feel in the hard copy. It is dulled in the digital version, but still present.
“What are we supposed to do with the hard copies?” asked Loma. “Downsizing them is a little strange. They are flat and don’t take up a lot of space.”
“Only if they are stored like this one. Invisible in a paper folder and unseen for at least a half-century.”
“The digital files are even flatter. But they don’t get creases on them.”
“And they don’t look alive without the shine in the paper.”
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