Does having pictures of children from my past experiences as a camp counselor or director raise red flags about me?

I am 52 years old, single and never married—and actually am an ordained Presbyterian minister, though I haven’t served full time as a pastor for over 15 years. From the time I was 19 until I was about 43, I spent a lot of summers as a camp counselor and director of children’s camps—and have done more than my share of work with children in church programs and secular afterschool programs.

In all this experience, there have only been minor questions involving my character or motives. When I was 23, someone started a rumor that I was a satanist. A couple of times in my thirties, minor things I said or did were misinterpreted by people. But for the most part, its been fun and spiritually enriching. I have been the part of many people’s lives and their families—some of the kids I knew years ago have kids or their own—or are doing similar work to what I did. I could write for hours about these experiences.

I use montages (collections) of photos of some of my past experiences in my decorating, and have many photos of the kids from my past. It is safe to say that all of them are adults now. But I thrive on these memories. I don’t do much work with kids anymore because they mainly see me (because of my age) more of an ‘authority figure’—and there does come a time for some people when we are too old for this kind of thing unless we do it full time as an administrator of sorts.

Anyhow, my girlfriend, who is 42 years old (and I am 52) thinks its creepy somehow that I have so many photos of kids. As I said, these are from the distant past and all of them are adults now if the math is done.

It is true that about 65–70 percent of the photos are girls— and yes, since some water events are included, there are some swimsuits. Most are camp photos. I love evoking memories of summer camp—both as a counselor and momentos from my own experiences as a kid in the 1970s.

Some of my photos are staged to look like earlier Summer Camp epochs—like the early 1900s. I have a generous dose of Indian, Bear, and Wilderness Camping themes.

Anyhow, in all of my photos the kids are healthy and happy and the pictures were not forced—they were of good times, of growth experiences through relationships—and most of them were displayed publicly at one time or another.

My girlfriend thinks its strange for a man my age (52) to feature such photos in my decorating and retain so many albums and display some of them prominently—inferring I suppose that it makes me look like a pedophile or at least weird (in a bad way).

Honestly I really don’t care what others think—except if it makes them uncomfortable about me.

What do you think?