Slide Show Evenings

It was with great excitment that as children, my sister and I greeted slide show evenings at home.  They didn't happen very often, usually on a Saturday evening in winter, after we had eaten dinner and when Dad had the enthusiasm to set up the projector and screen.  The slides were in round carousels (see extras) and my sister and I would take it in turns to have the glory of pressing the button to move one slide on to the next.  Many of the pictures were poorly exposed and some had blobs on them where dust had entered the camera - Dad had a list of jokes he would reel out each time we saw a certain photo with a blob of dirt on it in unfortunate position!  Every now and then the carousel would make an extra loud clunking noise and jam.  The lights would be switched on whilst Dad tried to unfree the jammed slide.  Then it was back to the darkened room, just the beam of the projector cutting across it with the dust sparkling in its path, the humming of the projector in the background, as we laughed at our outfits and recalled stories of amusing holiday incidents. 

When we sorted through Mum's things earlier this year, I brought the slide projector and carosels home with me, along with boxes of slides.  Mum had scanned many of them but I can't bear to get rid of the slides nor the projector.  Hopefully I can do some slideshows again and keep alive the memories of those happy evenings, and the people and stories shown in the photographs.  There is however one problem -  we have lost the cable with that all important and much sought after button that moves the slides on.  I cannot find a way to move them on manually (i.e. with my finger) nor can I find a second hand cable online.  So, I may need to buy another 35mm slide projector but it won't quite feel the same..