problems and solutions to a store window, filled with old polaroid cameras.

Hey. You know what? Never give up. And don't inquire about store "decorations" around christmas time.

So back in November '09 or so I decided on my break at work to go to the whole foods in Wayland to purchase soap and probably an overpriced lunch. Whole Foods drives me nuts but when I do go in there it makes me want to get creative and start cooking a lot, unlike when I go into Foodmaster where the thought is "What here is microwavable?" So I noticed there was a store called Photo Video Store a few stores over in the plaza and I decided to take a look at what I thought appeared to be things with lenses in the windows......I got closer...and closer...and then neurons burst for in three of the windows on each little shelf was a little antique camera!!!! One window was mostly 35mm's, another brownies, one shelf had the cutest TINY little yashica, maybe it was 6x6, but the window that grabbed my attention was the one filled with polaroid cameras. SX-70s, pack film cameras, a couple of the old kodak ones, some regular polaroids..... and then I looked in the store and saw even more way high up near the ceiling on a shelf.

Naturally, I thought "Fuck whole foods" and went inside this photo shoppe.

Inquiring about the cameras, I learned that they were from the original owner, who was in his 70s and came in very infrequently. He was an obsessive collector of old cameras and had way more in his own home. I mentioned I , uh, liked polaroids. A lot. Were any of them for sale? The man behind the counter said not technically but he'd ask the owner and for me to check back. I walked away very intrigued.

Two weeks from then I called the shoppe, again, inquiring about the cameras, could they take my name and number. Sure.... but this time a lady was like "I don't think he'll give those away." "I can pay for one". "I don't think he'll sell them." Ok.

I didn't hear back, so another week later I called and the owner actually was there. Someone asked for him that a lady was interested in buying a camera. The owner said yeah sure..$25.00 would be fine. Wow! I thought. Except that I didn't have $25.00 until the next time I got paid and was commuting to work via whatever money I could find. Then I got busy and just never ended up going to the shoppe.

Christmas time came around and I made the mistake of going there like....really close to Christmas. The old owner was there and NOT in a good mood. "Hi I'm the girl that was interested in the..." I was cut off. "NO WAY. Look lady, just..not now. Unless you have $10,000". "I don't".

So I was kind of bummed and figured that was that and i had a pile of cameras anyway but no sx-70. Then finally my dad found his old one and gave it to me. Then I obtained another one at a goodwill. Not the folding kind but the more modern one with the built-in focal distance. Then I tried some sx-70 film. And then this was amazing and I kept thinking about this store.

So today, Monday, April 5th, I had to go to the photo shoppe anyway to pick up some slide film that I had been waiting 3 weeks for. It was ready, and I thought I'd give it one more shot at obtaining one of these little gems.

Sure enough, the kind man behind the desk called the owner, who had decided he had so many cameras that he was going to bring in even more from his own personal collection and "give some away." I was then told "you can just take whatever sx-70s you want."

You can just take whatever sx-70s you want.

What?

Yeah, sure. Just don't take the Polaroid Printer.

...................OK!

So yeah. My passenger seat of my car now has 5 sx-70s (I snagged all) + a polaroid 450 which I didn't get to look too close at but the lenses on these are supposed to be really nice. All of the cameras were quite dusty but so far I just tried one of the ones with a sonar and it works! Just a couple pieces on it are broken but nothing that impairs picture taking.

Also, my slide film looks really cool. I can't wait to scan the photos from Videodrome! I just want to run around outside! Things are suddenly just really really nice lately and I'm still quite surprised!

Also, I didn't eat breakfast or lunch today and the only thing I have right now is skippy chunky peanut butter. Rather than just grab a fork from upstairs, I used the next best thing to eat a bit of peanut butter with, which was the non-ink end of a fat sharpie marker. I win.