Memories of Ales, Gard, France

Friday while I was on duty for FamilySearch.org, a phone call came to me from Draper, Utah regarding a family history question. I discovered that the caller was the wife of a young Englishman I served with in Ales, France in 1966! It brought back a flood of memories, and I told her I had some old photos I could send.

The quality of the photos is poor. Color slides were the popular technology for photos at that time. If you projected the slides, it was almost like being there again. It was amazing! But the traditional color print photos retained their popularity after the slides craze had passed. It is probably a good thing, as their survival was much better.

Back when we arrived in Ales the only affordable housing we found was out-of-town in an old stone house without indoor plumbing other than cold running water in the kitchen sink. (In most areas of France and Switzerland our housing was excellent. Ales was a bit more primitive.)

One day a plowman came to plow the neighbor's vineyard. His plow was in a 2-wheeled cart. While he and his horse were busy plowing the field, my missionary companion and I took each other's photos standing beside his cart. Here is a poor quality photo of how I looked nearly 50 years ago.

Ah, the memories!