To Polaroid, With Love
Those school girl days of camera clicks and snapping pics ago...
My 6th birthday is one that stands out in my memory as one of the best for gift hauls. I got some of my favorite stuff that year. I'm pretty sure that's the year I got my little red Panasonic tape recorder (which became my best friend and my mother's worst enemy.) I'm not positive about that one. I DO know it was the year I got my totally sweet Barbie Silver Vette (the only Barbie accessory I ever had, not counting clothes) and the subject of this blog entry.
Whenever I have to get a gift for a kid, I try to give them something that adults take for granted but a kid would be beyond psyched to have. That's harder and harder to do in this advanced age, but I got to experience that in my childhood when I got my Polaroid camera. It was my very own camera that I could take my very own pictures with and I didn't have to depend on Mom and Dad to get film developed (they had drawers full of undeveloped film. I knew the score.) Plus, it was no toy like that Fisher Price "I'm made of blue and yellow plastic so you know I'm for kids" camera. This was a REAL camera. I was given a pack of film with it and I snapped those first ten pictures away in record time. I have no regrets.
Today I came to grips with the fact that it was time to say goodbye to my trusted friend of over 20 years. I've been holding on to it for sentimental reasons, but it hasn't worked in years (I couldn't even use the excuse that it was still good.) The only way I could get rid of it with a clear head was to take pictures of it (oh the irony) and give it this proper sendoff. I get too attached to things, I know. But looking at that camera reminds me of a very happy time in my childhood and sometimes it's hard to throw away the last remaining items of an era. Thanks for the memories, little Polariod camera. I mean that literally.
Some of the first pictures ever taken with my Polaroid camera.
One last moment with my first camera
My 6th birthday is one that stands out in my memory as one of the best for gift hauls. I got some of my favorite stuff that year. I'm pretty sure that's the year I got my little red Panasonic tape recorder (which became my best friend and my mother's worst enemy.) I'm not positive about that one. I DO know it was the year I got my totally sweet Barbie Silver Vette (the only Barbie accessory I ever had, not counting clothes) and the subject of this blog entry.
Whenever I have to get a gift for a kid, I try to give them something that adults take for granted but a kid would be beyond psyched to have. That's harder and harder to do in this advanced age, but I got to experience that in my childhood when I got my Polaroid camera. It was my very own camera that I could take my very own pictures with and I didn't have to depend on Mom and Dad to get film developed (they had drawers full of undeveloped film. I knew the score.) Plus, it was no toy like that Fisher Price "I'm made of blue and yellow plastic so you know I'm for kids" camera. This was a REAL camera. I was given a pack of film with it and I snapped those first ten pictures away in record time. I have no regrets.
Today I came to grips with the fact that it was time to say goodbye to my trusted friend of over 20 years. I've been holding on to it for sentimental reasons, but it hasn't worked in years (I couldn't even use the excuse that it was still good.) The only way I could get rid of it with a clear head was to take pictures of it (oh the irony) and give it this proper sendoff. I get too attached to things, I know. But looking at that camera reminds me of a very happy time in my childhood and sometimes it's hard to throw away the last remaining items of an era. Thanks for the memories, little Polariod camera. I mean that literally.
Some of the first pictures ever taken with my Polaroid camera.
One last moment with my first camera
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