
If you grew up in the 70's, odds are you saw Henry Fonda's endorsement of The GAF View-Master viewer and disks (photo courtesy of www.viewmaster.co.uk). If you remember this, then you may also remember some comedian of that era doing a Henry Fonda impression and really exaggerating his pronunciation of GAF as, "GGGAAAAFFF". For those of you who grew up during the 80's or later, well, your time line for the progress of picture viewers goes something like this: Cave drawings>View-Master>Image viewer on an I-pod, or mp3 player. So, somewhere in the middle ages a company, possibly Sawyer, invented a hand-held slide viewer that could hold 7 images with a caption on a single disk. Oh, there were other viewers, but mainly the kind that you find for inspecting a single 35mm slide. The View-Master was really an updated version of the stereoscope.
I often see these disks and viewers at tag sales and get a little nostalgic for the one I had as a kid. In the 60's & 70's the company (or whom ever owned the rights to it) reinvented this toy by creating disks that featured scenes from Disney movies and television programs. In many cases these scenes were elaborately recreated by modelers with full back drops that allow the View Master photographers the ability to create the 3d effect with great depth of field. I remember the Flintstones disk I had and how they had captured the "barney-copter's" flight and froze it in mid air. This was impressive to a 10 year old. So, I look at these disks from time to time, just to see what's on them. I am not sure at which sale this one disk caught my attention:






Though taken in 1979 you can see that the land mass or island shown in the slide is gone. Where did it go? Erosion from the various draw downs over the years as this man made lake was managed over the years? That's my guess. Anyone who has visited the "leap" will tell you, if you happen to be out some day looking for something to do, check this park out. The restoration, which was completed in 2007 has created a nice parking area, preserved an old iron bridge and created marked trails to explore. You may just see me there, I'll be the one who keeps looking through the View-Master, then peering out, then looking through the View-Master until I'm sure I am standing in the right spot. Or, I may just be looking for the "barney-copter".