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Blogs by Robert A. Mills
SAY CHEESE . . .
5/15/2009 1:16:11 PM
The moment the phone rang at 5:47 AM I knew it would be my Irish friend and neighbor, Willy Moncrief (who else would call me at that ungodly hour even though he could not accurately pronounce words with the ‘th’ sound?)
“Didja get a e-mail from XXXX XXXXXX (name omitted to protect the guilty)?” the Celtic demon asked, and I shook my head as though he could see me. “Well, I did—an’ he’s fulla beans. Pictures like that could never been taken wit’ a Kodak Brownie! I’m comin’ over!”
Ten minutes later he was at my door, a six-pack of Dortmunder’s Lite Dark Lager in his hand and fire in his eye. “Wouldja have a church key about?” he asked, sitting down at the kitchen table. “Turn your computer on an’ see if XXXX sentja the same pitchers as me.”
I fired up my not-so-trusty Dell—and there they were: 16 shots of the devastation at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The caption said they had been taken with a Kodak Brownie and the film had been forgotten and undeveloped inside the old box camera for the past 68 years! *
“No way!” Moncrief cried, gulping his first Dortmunder’s of the day. “Look at those shots! You think a Brownie coulda taken pitchers like that? First place, it was either a Kodak Brownie Target Six-20, a Brownie Special Six-20—both o’ which used eight exposure rolls—or it was a Brownie Reflex 127, which got twelve shots on a roll. This guy claims he took sixteen pitchers! No way!”
I looked closely at the photos. “I think you’re right,” I said. “Unless these shots are computer enhanced, there’s no way a Kodak Brownie could capture anything like this. I’d say a professional photojournalist took them with maybe a Speed Graphic press camera. Besides, silver nitrate roll film would never hold up for sixty-eight years . . . ”
“Aye. Be like tryin’ to develop flypaper.”
Moncrief went to work on his second Dortmunder’s while I studied the array of black and white photos. The devastation at Pearl Harbor that infamous day in 1941 was horrific, not just in Naval and Army Air Force equipment, but in killed and wounded military and civilian personnel. The statistics at the end of the e-mail were staggering.
“You know what dips me toes in acetic acid, laddie? Last T’ursday was May 7, an’ ‘twas on that date in 1945 that the Nazis signed the unconditional surrender in Reims, France, finally endin’ World War Two.”
“So?” I shrugged, concentrating on the computer screen.
“Not one major TV newscast—not Charlie Gibson, Brian Williams, Katie Cottonseed—not even Blitz Wuffer—said a thing about it. Not a peep outta anyone! . . . Makes ye wonder if it was all worth it.”
I looked up. “It was,” I said. “You want another beer?”
“Aye. I’d offer ye one but you’d say no, anyway. ‘Sides, I only got three left ‘til I get home.”
* As I cannot attached it here, I’ll be happy to forward the photos and explanatory email from XXXX XXXXON at Eastman Kodak—just send me your email request at: robtmills.comcast.net If I’m wrong and they really were taken with a Kodak Brownie forgotten in a locker for 68 years, I’ll apologize next time I’m in Rochester, NY.
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