I owe some great memory reminders to this little camera.
I had the pleasure of one of these fine little cameras from when I was 11 years of age. I have a feeling it belonged to my Mum but somewhere along the line I borrowed it and it became mine, probably more to the fact that she despised paying over the top for the Polaroid film packs for my ‘Land Camera’, which were expensive and I did like to take a picture or 3 har har.
So this little fella accompanied me just about everywhere, from a School trip when I was 11 to Penzance in Cornwall, much of which I did not see due to becoming very ill and which ruined the trip. I was a train buff at the time and loved the fact I was being hauled to Cornwall by a Class 50, and we crossed Brunel’s Tamar Bridge. I think if photography teaches us one thing more than any other, it is about memories, or rather memory joggers. They serve to bring to our mind a moment in time long ago, to refresh our minds of times that are but distant. The Kodak 100 is an instamatic camera that takes a126 cartridge roll film, a simple drop in pack of film that, well, it just works. It works basically like a pin hole camera which has a fixed aperture and shutter speed and basically relies on the sunny 16 rule for exposure measurement. An almost foolproof camera that takes ok images was just what the boy needed and it served me well at the time – Now of course it’s the images that I took with that little camera that I still have in my treasured little box of Dutch Chocolates that I use to store them.
As you can see from the images below, there are stories here of my youth that I love very much. I lived on a boat as a child, with my Mum and Dad and as a result of this many of the images are of a maritime nature, such that I basically had webbed feet as a child. Dad and I used to go fishing, some images from there, I had my own 16ft boat and it used to go everywhere, I knew the channels of the River Medway like the back of my and and I was often able to get into places due to it’s shallow draft, great fun as a kid of course, kind of ‘Swallows’, without the ‘Amazons’. I Once went out and across the Estuary to get through Havengore creek, through the River Roach into the Crouch, and on to South Woodham Ferrers. I met my first real girlfriend there so that’s another nice memory that the little camera jogged for me. The sunrise from the boat, as I sat out on the Maplin Sands, awaiting the tide for Havengore lives with me to this day, such a great place to be, so tranquil.
Did a small stint of running a safety boat at Brighton Marina in the Summer of 81, that was fun tearing about in an Atlantic 21 Rib with plenty of Horsepower , again this little camera came with me and jogs the mind.
So there you have it, always take pictures, more importantly back them up and save them well, because one day they will be all you will have to remind you of those great days and times you had. Thank-you for watching the images and reading the text, I hope you enjoyed it.