Thanks, Polaroid

I heard on the news the other day that Polaroid will no longer be making their instant cameras. Digital cameras have caused the demise of this part of American history. Naturally, this got me thinking about the role Polaroid played in my life over the years, and I went digging in the old pictures.

These pics are from 1970, and I would have been 20, not yet 21. My friend Janet had just gotten her Polaroid, and these black and white pictures were taken in a local park. Yes, I'm hanging from the monkey bars....see, I was once young!

It's hard to imagine since we now live in an era of instant everything, but if we took pictures with our little Kodaks, we had to take the film to be developed, and in about 5 to 7 days they would be ready to pick up. It was such a kick to have the Polaroids and see the pictures within minutes.

As years went by, Robert and Elizabeth came along, and eventually a color Polaroid. Here they are with Grampa C.

We didn't take a lot of instant pictures. Reggie got his 35 mm about this time, and that became the camera of choice. But in the whole scheme of things, the process of snapping the picture, seeing it eject from the camera, and the anticipation of seeing the picture develop before your eyes stands out in my memory.

A little history, a little trivia. Thanks for the memories, Polaroid.