Polaroids......... Kodak.....

When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school
It's a wonder I can think at all
And though my lack of education hasn't hurt me none
I can read the writing on the wall

I really don't believe that.  An admitted simpleton, tweren't never booksmart but I do believe we all learned so, so much in high school (in class, outta class, at friend's houses, dances, sports, band, plays, Friday nights, after school stuff, infatuations, trials and tribulations.  We did, I believe, mostly get along.  If we didn't, and our troubles started in 2nd hour, we didn't take them down to Madam Rue (you know that gypsy with the gold capped tooth...all these years, I'd never read those lyrics and i thought she had "the gold tattoo." Oh well.)

What we did, instead... by 7th hour, word had spread faster'na modern day viral post... Fitty some classmates escorted the two disgruntled ones to "The Smoke Tree."  The Smoke Tree was just across the street from our High School. I pity the folks that lived there, for, most afternoons led to a hunnerd and sixty cigarette butts littering their yard.  The Smoke Tree also served as 'the boxing ring' for disgruntled. No cost for a ticket to go watch, cheer the two in redfaced disagreement. After anxieties were played out in real fistacuffs, usually hands were shook, "OK we can peacefully exist, maybe not best friends, but, this won't happen again."

Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's
A sunny day, oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don't take my Kodachrome away

Remember all the varieties of cameras back then?  There were those damn 'bulb cube' things we used at Christmas, and after taking the four (or eight, I forget) pics it was time to burn ya damn hands, remove the rotating cube and put a new one in.

Polaroid started in 1937.  Some dude named Edwin Land did hunnerds of studies in light polarization. Boom, polarized sunglasses, 3-D movies, even protective goggles for Military doggies, and infrared night viewing devices for our WWII troops.

If you took all the girls I knew when I was single
And brought 'em all together for one night
I know they'd never match my sweet imagination
And everything looks worse in black and white

Au contraire, I've truly loved each and every 'mate' I've had opportunity to sit by at The Plaza Theater, Jerry Lewis Cinima, The Twin Drive In, AMC, The Tivoli, and now B&B.

Eastman Kodak was a customer of Land/Polaroid. The Land Camera was born. Snap a picture, pull the tab, peel the negative from the finished positive print, PRESTO, holy hell, I hope you didn't sink your life savings into Fotomat.

Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's
A sunny day, oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don't take my Kodachrome away

Kodachrome, the very first successful color materials, used in both cinematography and still photography. With Polariod and it's pull the tab popularity, combined with Kodak's brain for color, twas a match made in Heaven, peanut butter and jelly, Laurel and Hardy, Ruth and Gehrig, George and Gracie.

Until.......... that is...   in 1976 (after all that crap we learned in High School) Kodak came out with their own version of instant film cameras. Uh oh, a needed trip to The Smoke Tree.  Or, in this case, Court. Polaroid sued for $12 billion for patent infringement, the court decided, yep, you did (infringe) Kodak, cease production immediately and pay Polaroid $909.5 million of the $12 billiion they asked for.

Mama don't take my Kodachrome away
Mama don't take my Kodachrome away
Mama don't take my Kodachrome away

Mama don't take my Kodachrome
Mama don't take my Kodachrome
Mama don't take my Kodachrome away

Mama don't take my Kodachrome
Leave your boy so far from home
Mama don't take my Kodachrome away

Mama don't take my Kodachrome, mm-mmm
Mama don't take my Kodachrome away (okay)

But, they done did take the Kodachome (instant camera) away. Dust from the Smoke Tree settled. For various reasons, both companies eventually bit the dust (can you say 'digital'?) - Polaroid in 2001 and Kodak in 2009, long after all that crap we learned in High School.

Victor, I don't get it. I don't get the purpose of this blog, pun mebbe intended, I don't get the picture?  

Haha, funny you are. The point is, things change.  People can change.  Society changes. We now take sides and show our damn teeth like a mad dog.  There ain't no Smoke Trees to quickly settle arguments, and hell, we get purple marks allover our body just brushing up agin' a door jamb, we ain't in no position, shape, to trade blows at The Smoke Tree.

Our Country is polarized. One side peels the negative for their finished product, idea, thought, belief...other side does too.  Hatfield McCoy, Ali Frazier, Obi-Wan Darth, Superman Lex Luther.

Why can't we be friends?

Why can't we be friends?

Why can't we be friends?

Why can't we be friends?

Folks, we've got a damn itchy itchy rash.. and they should call it Polarrhoids.

Oh for the days, after all that crap we learned in High School... when we would walk, run, settle things in a hurry at The Smoke Tree, walk away in embrace, or, at least, peacefully coexisting.

Love, Victurd