Chapter 22

This week the Kodak company filed for what is jokingly called "Chapter 22 bankruptcy" which means Chapter 11 for the second time.

Here's the thing.

It is a great day today because we take pictures pretty much for free.

Not like way back when my family had the Kodak Instamatic camera, which took pictures looking very much like the second image from the top.

You bought the camera, the film, the flash cubes (On the top camera), the picture comes out of the side, you pull back the... ... "paper" and in a few moments your image appears. If that image is terrible, you already paid for it.

In the early 80s the Polaroid company sued Kodak and they were no longer allowed to sell instant cameras or instant film.

Kodak bought back the Instamatic and sold us the "110" film & development camera.

With this, you had to wait three days for the drug store to develop your pictures before you found out if the pictures you paid for were worth the paper they were printed on.

Liking instant cameras all these years, we got a Polaroid instant camera.

They take pictures like the one Guy Pierce is holding.

Like the Kodak 110, the Polaroid had a built-in permanent flash.

Flash cubes had four, flash bulbs before them were one-and-done.

Today we take pictures basically for free.

I take all mine from my so-three-years-ago cell phone.

The quality is very good, just as good as the Instamatic, and if the picture doesn't work out, I just delete it and try again.

No charge.

Ain't it great?

n