Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Photos Found

While rummaging through a second hand store's book rack recently, my friend Peter and I came across this strip of pictures in a Fodor's Travel Guide for New Zealand circa 1974. It took me back to the fun times of friends piling into one of those photo booths at Old Orchard Beach and attempting to make the zaniest faces for the camera. It was a rite of passage for most teenagers back then, and it probably still is. You can still find a few lingering around here in the digital age. I'm sure the cost of the strip is upwards of $5 or more these days though. It's a far cry from the 50¢ that I remember dropping into the machine. Let's see, if these girls were 16 in 1974, today they would be approaching their 55th birthdays. My, my my time does have an evil way of catching up with us. I'm drawn to the gal on the left, the smile, the laughing face. Where has time taken her? Is the sense of humor still a part of her, or has the time machine taken the edge off and sent her whirling? I'll wager that they probably have lost track of each other, although back then they surely took a pact never to leave each other's side. Time has a way of getting in the way of most early friendships. 

19 comments:

  1. what a beautiful quartet they were. if you were a detective you could track them down, reunite them, and write a book or make a movie about their journeys and yours to find them. i'd watch that movie/read that book in a heartbeat.

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  2. Nothing like the laughter of teens! We've found 2 of these booths in the last few years, one was at a children's festival in Portsmouth...We laughed & giggled to rival any teenager!! Even though the strips are now digitized, & you can even access a video of your silliness, they have the same feel! Time, how she flies...

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  3. I like brattcat's idea. In fact I was thinking you could write a great short story based on this picture.

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  4. oh, wouldn't they love to get their hands on that photo strip!

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  5. Did you read about the guy who found thousands of dollars between the pages of an old book he picked up at a book store that sold used books? Wow. Did you check this one out good?

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  6. I forgot to tell you that I picked up a 500 megabyte external hard drive on it and found countless things I had written back in the day when, among other things, George W. Bush made me something of a lunatic when it came to writing.

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  7. This post reminds me many memories! I almost have tears in eyes. What you say about time is so true!I'm not sure those machines still exist, but they saw so much of those funny moments..

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  8. I must have some of those old strips around.

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  9. What a great find! I remember using these machines and having great fun. Your photo of their photos shows this well.

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  10. You are so right -- I've often had thoughts about people I've known -- "where are they now" or "they sure are not the same as I remember them." Time makes changes on everyone. School reunions are always wake up calls to the waning of time. -- barbara

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  11. Wow, what a fantastic find! Wouldn't this film strip make a cool idea to center a novel around... what ever happened to these women?!... it stirs the imagination :^)

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  12. I love it when you find something in an old book. This is a real treat!

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  13. What an exciting find..I have an urge to dash out and find one of these booths and squash in there with at least three friend and pull weird and crazy faces, fun!!

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  14. I can't really remember the cost, but there were Lire then. Now we have the Euro, until we will go back to the Lire again...

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  15. What a great and happy find!!!
    Must be a story to tell there....

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