Harold

Photos for this blog have been done entirely with my iPhone or my Mom's digital camera. I haven't been much of a shutterbug since college. In high school, however, it was a TOTALLY different story. I have at least a dozen photograph albums from those years, due largely in part to this fellow:

We called him Harold.

The "Funky Monkey" camera (as it was referred to in the catalog my friends and I found it in) was made for children 3 and up. The plastic was sturdy enough to survive being dropped over and over again. You had to use a special "key" to wind the film. It was perfect for both my klutziness and my type of photography- quick shots of friends and family hanging out. Nothing fancy or even framed well. In the days just before digital cameras were big, if you had to use a point-and-click camera anyway, why not go for the one with the giant monkey on it? At big events when everyone was taking photos (prom, graduation, plays, etc) there was never a question as to which camera was mine.

Harold got put into retirement when his flash bulb broke. I brought him to the Peterborough camera shop. The guy working there said I might have just as well brought him a disposable camera to fix, this one wasn't worth it. I was crushed.

I haven't owned another camera since.