Thursday, January 6, 2011

My Brownie camera

In December 1957 I was given a "Brownie StarFlash" camera, my first camera.    The first photograph that I took was of our family posing was on the doorstep on our new home at 121 Nichols Street, Danvers:

Christmas Day 1957

The photo is blurry and not well centered -- not a good photo -- but it was preserved in a photo album I started at that time.  

My grandfather, William S. Nichols, is on the right.   I'm so glad he was included in this photo.  He died the next year, at age 84.

The photo includes my father, mother, sister Jean and our dog Heidi.   The house was then very new (constructed in summer 1957) and lacked plantings in front.  Yew bushes were soon added. Over time they grew so large that they almost obscured those front steps, in spite of my mother's pruning.  She loved to use fresh-cut yew branches for indoor decorations, especially at Christmas time.

Here's another photo from my 1st roll of film:   my sister rolling down the slope in front of our house.

Winter 1958
That house no longer exists.  I'm glad to report, however, that my sister and I still enjoy playing in the snow. I've just returned from a wonderful visit with her at her home in NM. We enjoyed a delightful day of skiing together. 

1 comment:

Katley said...

My mom had this camera. Reading this brought back memories of Mom chronicling family events. Every time I visit her in Florida I look at her old photo albums, in which she meticulously positioned every picture with those black corner tabs that had glue on them. I don't know what they're called.

I was afraid of the flash, it was so bright, in many of the pictures my eyes were closed!

We used to dress up for pictures too, my mom loved to dress me up in frilly frocks (which I hated). And my younger brother wore a suit with a bow tie.