The Forgotten (Remembered) Film

A couple weeks ago, I was browsing facebook and saw that some one was selling an old film camera. "What is film?" I joked. The camera wasn't all that old, really. It had the smooth curves of your typical SLR digitals of today. It wasn't boxy like my old film camera. Oh! That's right, (I thought to myself) I still have one. It has been sitting in the top drawer of the junk dresser ever since we moved here. And I think it still has a roll of film in it.

 

Vague memories came back of running across the camera in years past, wondering if there was still film in it. I remembered snapping a few photos and watching carefully to see if the rewinding mechanism would spin as I tried to advance the film I wasn't sure existed. I remembered thinking that if there was film, I sure didn't want to waste it. Back before the digital days, you recall, every click cost some money.

 

I went to retrieve my camera and called Joe to pose for me. Sure enough, there was film left in it. I wondered if it was still good. I wondered what pictures I had taken. I figured it was high time I found out. I snapped some more photos of Joe and Z, let Joe try to take a couple pictures of me, then went outside to finish off the roll on some chickens.

 

It turns out that our local Walgreen's still processed film on site (who knew?), so the next time I was in town, I took the roll of film in. It was a few days before I could return to pick it up, but in the meantime, I relished the suspense. In this instant age, it isn't often we get to wait and anticipate.

 

Monday, I finally got the chance to pick up my photos. Zivah and I paid for them ($12!), then we headed to the van to see what we would find. The first picture to greet me was this melancholy image of Joe, not quite a year old (2007?), with a hint of the eczema that troubled him at that age.

 

 

 Next were several photographs of this cactus. You can read the story behind it here.

And then came the photo that made the $12 worthwhile:

These must have been taken around Joe's 4th birthday in the late winter or early spring of 2010.

 

And nearly three years later as I finished off the roll:

 

I was a little disappointed that I didn't have any pictures Finley. I guess she wasn't around the few times the camera came out.

Now I am tempted to buy another roll a film, load up the camera, and stash it away again to see what we end up with in another 5 or 6 years.