In Just a Minute

       More Letters From Paradise
   
          In Just a Minute

I was about to enter a contest, and mentioned to Teena that my mother used to enter many contests. She would often win small prizes, but one time she won a new Polaroid Land camera. This was a new marvel in photography, take a picture and it would be ready in a minute. Teena said that she saved enough money to purchase one for her parent's 12th wedding anniversary. The cameras were expensive.

As I remember, the camera worked this way: after snapping the picture, you opened the back of the camera and pulled a tab. This caused rollers to squeeze developing flu onto the exposed paper print. Next, you would wait impatiently, watching the sweep hand on your watch go around for one minute. At the end of one minute you pulled the paper print from the camera and coated it with a wide brush filled with goop which was probably hypo which would preserve the print. There you had it! A black and white print! With all to technical progress, the Polaroid Land Camera faded in to photograph history, but in its day it was a wonder.

         Aloha
         Grant