Magic Camera

 While trying remember a name last night, my brain went back to something that happened a long time ago.

Took me till this morning to remember the last name of the people who lived in a house down the street, but out of the blue, early this morning, it just popped into my head. I won't write it here as some of these folks might be alive and it is rude to mention full names without permission. But...

The older daughter who lived there was a few years older than I was. Somehow, I got invited to her birthday party. I think all the girls who lived on the street did. It was a party dress and patent leather shoes party. Cool. I had a party dress!

Anyway, the party was forgettable except for one thing. The girl's father joined us with something special...so special, I can never forget it.

He took the object out of the leather case, I think it was...hey, I was about 5 and this makes it nearly 70 years ago. It was brown. He unfolded the object and proceeded to take our pictures with it. Now, this happened frequently at birthday parties, so it wasn't so special, but this time...oh, this time!

Papers spewed out of the camera. After a few minutes, we could actually see the photos!

Mr. G had the very first Polaroid Land Camera I'd ever seen!!!!

So very, very cool. 

We saw ourselves in black and white minutes after we'd posed for the photos! 

Ahh, science. When I think of the first time I saw something...like the first time I saw a small microwave oven in 1969...it was history! I lived through history just as I did seeing Alan Shepard go into space and John Glenn circle the Earth three times!

My grandmother went from living in a mud covered house in Ukraine to having an automobile to a color television to using a microwave to heat her coffee. 

You might not appreciate these achievements, but, stop and think about what you have witnessed in your lifetime.  Cool, huh?