Much to the chagrin of a guy named Louie, this is another personal story. Too bad for him.

I’ve been using my smart phone for just about all of the pictures I take. Last weekend, when I led a hike in the historic Pico Canyon oil town of Mentryville, I took a picture of the group of SCV Community Hiking Club folks so it could be included in the group files. I used my little Canon camera, which is great for being light and taking little space in a knapsack or backpack.

Just before I started writing this, I downloaded my pictures from that little Canon camera. Since I seldom use that camera, some of the pictures were of events I had nearly forgotten.

The pictures aren’t anything like the recently found pictures of the St. Francis Dam, taken maybe a day after the disaster. (You can see them at SCVHistory.com.) No, these pictures are of some events from my travels over the past year.

Have you ever had an old roll of film developed to discover long-lost pictures of family and friends? That is about how I felt when I found those pictures on the camera. Only the pictures were electronic. I don’t know if you can even buy film and get it developed any more. Does anyone know the answer?

The first pictures were of my visit to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. Only have a couple from inside the cave, but there were curious signs in the parking lot.

Now, you’ve got to get the picture. Mammoth Cave is about an hour’s drive northeast form Bowling Green, Ky. You know Bowling Green, the home of the plant that produces the Chevrolet Corvette.

Most of what we consider SCV history started out in somebody’s family photo album. (Click the image to see what this is.)

So I found it curious that all of those parking spaces were empty. The whole day I was there.

By the way, the staff there is fantastic. I had left my cell phone, and they used it to call a friend of mine who emailed me to go pick it up at the visitor center.

And then there was the next event I had forgotten about. A drive to Santa Barbara to a glass blowing studio. Just some nice pictures along the coast north of Ventura and some pictures of the glass the studio made.

There were a couple taken during a late-afternoon drive to Vasquez Rocks. Love that place.

Finally I came to the pictures of the group from last Saturday in Pico Canyon, standing on the porch of Felton School.

So much of the history of the SCV is made up of pictures taken at family and small community events. Do you have any that might fill in the gaps in what we know about the SCV? Like the pictures found in a box in San Francisco showing the St. Francis Dam right after it failed.

The family that shot this photo at the Felton School back in the 1920s probably couldn’t have guessed it would become an important part of our history.

Or maybe you have a picture of a band in the Fourth of July Parade in Newhall from 1966 that you have kept in a family album forever. It might seem like just another picture for you, but one of our local history nuts might just see something in that picture that fills in another bit of our past.

So if y’all could just look around and see what history you have sitting in your photo albums and maybe still stuck on your camera, you might find a great memory just for you – or great memories for us all.

And when you find them, if you could send them my way, they will be forwarded on to the SCV Historical Society. Make sure you identify everyone in the pictures and the date, time and place it was taken, if you know it. An email with a copy of the picture or pictures attached to the address given below is all you need to get it to me.

I can’t wait. I’ll find my alternative-fuel vehicle and run them right over to the Historical Society. I hope they have one of those signs there. I hope I can find a parking spot if they do. Just like the lot at Mammoth Cave.

Darryl Manzer grew up in the Pico Canyon oil town of Mentryville in the 1960s and attended Hart High School. After a career in the U.S. Navy he returned to live in the Santa Clarita Valley. He can be reached at dmanzer@scvhistory.com and his commentaries are archived at DManzer.com. Watch his walking tour of Mentryville [here].