RUMMAGING THROUGH THE PAST

The subject of Patt Morrison’s “Cast-Off Genes” (Three on the Town, Oct. 3) has been one of my interests for longer than I care to admit. It poses questions I have been thinking about in relationship to a project of mine that was begun at a rummage sale.

What is it that makes a person curious, a detective who re-examines the past to place fact into context? What link is re-established, bridged from past to present, even if it is not one’s own family history? What defines curiosity?

I’ve been researching and exhibiting photos from the 1920s of a man’s travels across the country. A flea-market find for a buck, the 500 catalogued negatives (name, date and place) have lured me back time and again. I found remaining family members and was told fragments of his life. I wanted to know more about this photographer, and I became curious about car travel in the ‘20s and about the automobiles themselves.

Thanks, Patt. I’m glad someone else is wondering about all this stuff.

IRENE ADAMCZYK, Los Angeles