I posted the photo on the left to Facebook, but wanted to share it here too. I am amazed at how much Coco looks like her Daddy.
Back in the day we didn’t have a ton of cash to spend doing much of anything. A yearly pass to Indiana parks, gas in the tank, and a picnic lunch and we were good to go. Fall, spring or summer — we found stuff to do. I’m not sure what happened to those days or why I don’t choose to enjoy that type of recreation anymore. Ben was about the same age as Coco is now when the photo was taken, and he sure thought our trips were amazing. Once the weather gets a bit more stable (hard to plan too far in advance when you don’t know if it’s going to be 80 or 45 a week in advance), I’m going to at least suggest it.
I have a ton of photos from about this same time… I had a 35mm camera that I took with me everywhere, and looking through old photo albums, some of the shots are pretty cool. Interesting since now you take a bajillion photos with your digital and pitch what you don’t like. Back in the day, you had a roll of film that allowed for 24 photos, and waited sometimes a week to get them developed. To be honest, those photos took a huge chuck of change from what I had available to spend. Double prints and a roll was around $12 bucks. Now that doesn’t sound like much… but back then, when you spent at least a buck for every decent photo, you had to carefully plan before you snapped. Today, I can pull 72 photos from my photo card and all I’ve photographed is a bar of soap.
At one point, I purchased darkroom equipment — the whole smear. Setting it up in a small, spare bedroom, I went through developer like crazy. But, like all good things, that too came to an end. I had a little boy that cried the second I closed that darkroom door, and I simply couldn’t stand to be in there knowing he was on the other side of it… even though someone else was watching him.