Pictures of the past

  I have just a few photographs from my time in the Navy. It was in a time before we all carried a camera twenty four seven. I remember when some of us would have those 35mm cameras hanging from a strap around our necks at we "hit the beach." The typical image of a tourist. I haven't seen anyone doing that lately but I assume some still do for the very best pictures. Those that want that "professional" quality image. But even those don't have film in them anymore, just more pixels. Pixels have replaced film. Kodachrome is long gone, a distant memory and unknown to a generation now. It has been fifteen years since the last roll was processed. I had that little camera that took 110 film. I haven't seen that in a while either.

  While I was in we were told not to take pictures on the ship in certain areas. There were secrets! I obeyed those rules and therefore have no pictures taken in the engine room where I spent my working days. There wasn't really anything there was any big secret to anyone at all, in or out of the Navy. The capabilities of the ships were common enough knowledge to anyone that cared to know. Back then film had to be developed and so I didn't take a lot of pictures. There was no way of getting any film developed until I returned anyway so why bother? At the time the places I was going were everyday stuff, I figured I'd see it all again. It's like living in your hometown, how many pictures do you take of that? Has to be something special when you do, like a natural disaster or special event. Same while in the Navy.

  The few pictures I do have are old shipmates. We never called each other shipmates however, that's only in the movies. No, we really didn't talk like that. The real language used couldn't be repeated in the movies, at least not back then, today it is mostly found in Rap songs. And those people in the pictures are all young men, trying to be men. That means there is a lot of hand gestures or signs involving a particular digit. Yes, the bird was always flying when a picture was being taken. More often than I realized at the time. The macho attitude was prevalent. Testosterone was raging even though most of us had never heard of testosterone at that time. None of that was contained in any advertisement and no blue pill existed either. No one was "empowering" anyone else to life their best life and enjoy quality time. No, mostly it was hitting the beach, consuming alcoholic beverages to varying degrees and seeking company. The reality being, there was a lot more talking about that stuff than action. 

  Looking back I do wish I had taken more pictures of the places I went. I wish I had written the names of the people I did photograph as well, some I have completely forgotten. But taking pictures back then was something that you just didn't do as frequently as we do today. I can see some the meals I was served in the Navy and wish I could share them with you. I still have some rolls of undeveloped film kicking around in my junk. I wonder sometimes what is on them  and if I could get them developed. I'm guessing you can still drop that film off at the drugstore. My granddaughter laughed when she heard me call it a drugstore, she calls it the pharmacy, yes she is that fancy. I may drop some off one day just to see if it will still develop. But then again, some things are best left unseen. The pictures in our memories are the best. We can store far more than our computers can, isn't that amazing. There is the issue of  extracting those files as we age. That doesn't matter though, the past is always what we remember it to have been, reality notwithstanding.