The year was 1953. Dwight Eisenhower was inaugurated President of the United States. Sir Edmund Hillary led the first successful ascent to the summit of Mount Everest. A doctor named Jonas Salk’s miracle vaccine spelled the beginning of the end of a devastating disease called “polio”.



July 27th of that year would bring war-weary Americans a cease-fire to the Korean War. Yes, times were good. Unemployment was under three percent and millions of Americans were spending their hard-earned money on things like cars and transistor radios.



The future was looking bright, too. The first color television sets appeared in 1953 and sold for well over one thousand dollars each. At that time, the average house cost just over two thousand!



It was during this time that one man, Captain Bobby Eugene Todd, in a small and quiet town in rural middle Tennessee spent $47.50 for one Kodak Brownie 8mm film camera. He would never know that his purchase would begin a film project to span more than half a century and two generations of his own family.



He bought the camera to make a hobby that year of documenting a special place. A school he had come to teach at only 1 year before. A short time, but time enough to form a bond that would forever change his life and the lives of those with him.



The school was Castle Heights Military Academy in Lebanon Tennessee and this is her story.