OUTRIGGER CAMERA & GIFT SHOP in 1970

I've written on my vernacular photography site about tourist photos. You know the kind I'm talking about. You're on a ride, or a ship, or just somewhere with a group and they take a shot of you standing or sitting with the group or your loved ones. After the ride is over you can buy a copy or two of the photo. Or you're walking down the street and a photographer steps out, takes your photo, then hands you a card letting you know where you can get a copy.

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This particular card was handed to my family after getting off a plane in Honolulu. They put leis around our necks and handed probably my mother this card. My family did not go to look at the photos or buy them. The only time I remember my folks buying such photos was on our cruise aboard the Matsonia to Hawaii. The shots were taken as we sailed in the fog under the Golden Gate Bridge bundled up in our East Coast woolens. Not even slightly tropical.

I do like the line "There is no charge unless you like it." So I'm wondering if you went in and said, "I think it's a horrible photo. I don't like it, but I'd like to get 10 copies." Would they have charged you if you stressed how much you didn't LIKE it? I'm thinking yes.

I imagine the Outrigger Camera & Gift Shop is long gone. Perhaps the "no charge" line put them out of business.

Wonder what my photo looked like on roll 39?

Driving my RED CADILLAC

When I was growing up Cadillacs were rich people cars. They had air conditioning. My folks had Fords, Chevys, and Oldsmobiles. We didn't have an air conditioner. Now Oldsmobiles are gone and Cadillacs are barely holding on. I drive a Japanese car. Who knew it would end up like this.

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I just found this ad in the June 1955 National Geographic and it made me smile because I've spent moments today at the cyber ball at Willow Manor. Shows you what the net can do. Use your imagination and you can go anywhere. Today, I'm this frosty looking blond driving away in a red Cadillac with Thomas Crown at the wheel. My reality...stopped up sink, storm outside, power on and off, net access here and there. I think I'll step back into this piece of vintage ephemera and worry about that ugly clogged sink later. I can pretend I'm elegant even while I sit here in a dirty Relay for Life t-shirt, mismatched socks, and a pair of sweatpants that faded from their original color long ago. Of course this is exactly what this ad had in mind. Fool me into believing that if I bought this car I'd turn into Grace Kelly. Well, a girl can dream.

AMERICA paper doll

A little piece of paper 114 years old. One of a series of 12 little paper dolls offered by the Barbour Brothers Company of New York in 1895. This one was called "America" for obvious reasons. Originally they cost three two-cent stamps. I think it interesting someone named her Grace, the same name of the doll I posted last night.