Tour de Camera. Part one.

Looking back. Way back.

Way back to 1984? 85?, when one Christmas morning I woke up to see Santa had delivered THIS:

picture borrowed from {here}

A Fisher-Price 110 format camera. Made by Kodak. With super cool rubber ends. AND a thin black strap so it could hang around your neck. Not only that, but it came with a disposable FLASH. You attached it on the top and then you could take about 10 or so pictures. Each time you used the flash one of the bulbs would pop inside, followed by a chemical smell that I can still remember. And a thin stream of smoke would trail out.

I'm sure I used up an entire roll of film AND flash unit taking blurry pictures that Christmas. I thought I was the coolest thing ever with my camera.

And it was pretty durable. Stuck around for a while. Here I am, sportin' it on a trip to Disneyland in 1986:

And my extreme apologies to any of my siblings who may not love the way they looked back in the '80s ...

I was only 10, but I was already hooked on the thrill of taking pictures. It was so exciting everytime I took my little plastic containers of film in to be developed. And then the agony of waiting for the pictures to be returned. My mom always insisted we develop all of our pictures in doubles, because she said it was much cheaper that way than having to get reprints done later. Although I'm not sure I ever actually wanted reprints of the shots I captured of random squirrels at Yellowstone ... or kids I met at overnight camp and 2 weeks later couldn't even remember their names anymore ... or out-of-focus, underexposed images of my siblings ~ often with their heads cut off. But just in case I ever find the beauty in those images, I have them in duplicate!

Of course, you can imagine what happened as soon as I pulled out my photo albums to find this picture of my first camera. I was sucked back in time and spent hours pouring over other old pictures. And was struck with awe yet again at how powerful images can be. I had so much fun, I decided I just HAD to share a few more "way back when" photos.

Like this gem:

Can anyone tell me why I am wearing a leash in this picture? This seems to contradict my mom's statement that I was a well-behaved child who always took care of myself. Maybe it was really for her benefit ... as I am frequently told the story of the time I got "lost" in Disneyland. (We went to Disneyland a lot ... my mom's favorite vacation spot). The family left me behind in a candy store. Apparently I was so enraptured by the cases of candy that I never even noticed they were all gone. My dad came back and I was still stuck in the same spot transfixed by everything around me. I can still get swept up things to such an intensity that I'm completely oblivious to anything else going on. Especially while reading a good book ...

Now if you are observent, you will notice that in the first photo I seem to be the oldest ... and in the second I seem to be the youngest. I am actually smack dab in the middle in my family. Number 6 out of 11 children. (Yes. You read that right). I loved growing up in a big family ... although I wonder if I was neglected just a bit. Because honestly. They let me out of the house looking like this?!

This picture makes me laugh every time I look at it. Because I remember how much I loved that shirt. It had an elephant on it. I'm really diggin' the knee-high striped socks with the shorts, too.

Just a couple more pictures that I found. This is one of my favorites. 1977. I had just turned one:

Easter, 1978. I can already see my little girl's smile in this one:

And finally, another favorite. Taken in Wyoming, about 1980:

Aaaah, that was fun. I really love looking back. And getting that little giggly feeling inside when thinking about my childhood. I was a pretty happy kid.

I have more "Tour de Camera" on the way tomorrow. With a glimpse at my first SLR. And some memories of just how useful duct tape can be. Stay tuned!