After my Grandpa died and his house was sold, we (grand kids) were allowed to take whatever we wanted. This served two purposes. 1) we were able to snag things that we’d always liked to remember him by and 2) it helped all our parents clean out his house.
I took all the screw drivers out of the kitchen, every photograph I could find, and this little beauty:
According to my Mom, “That was Gramma’s camera. We weren’t allowed to touch it.”
Followed a few days later by, “Yep, me and Uncle Bobby each had one of those. Matching, for the twins. We loved them.”
Followed a few days later by, “Gramma and Uncle Bobby each had their own- they loved them. Gramma just loved having her own camera, but Uncle Bobby. He took pictures all the time.”
Followed a few days later by, “I don’t know who that belonged to. It’s junk, throw it away.”
OBVIOUSLY I’m not going to throw this away. Even after I discovered that it’s had the same batteries in it for at least 20 years. I don’t know if you can see the white flecks in this photo, but that’s battery acid sand. Looks like sand, smells metallic, is batter acid.
Then there was the matter of film. Polaroid doesn’t make it anymore. Fuji DOES, so I bought some. Ten prints for something like $8, and free shipping. Uhm, YES PLEASE.
I was confused when I pulled it out of the package.
The only thing I understood was where not to touch. I needed directions on how to get it in. Plus, it just seemed too big.
OH BECAUSE IT IS TOO BIG. Honestly, what am I supposed to do with this?
My first reaction was to buy a brand new Polaroid instant camera from Target and as much film as I could carry, just to show Polaroid that they can’t keep me down. Then they’d win, though, because I would have spent all this money on a new camera AND their film. On top of which, I already have a digital camera I got last year that I still can’t figure out. Do I need another camera I don’t know how to use?
Probably.
But I’ll probably just try some different film for my Swinger.
