.... I've been watching my "That '70's Show" DVDs, and in a couple of seasons a lot takes place in their version of a PhotoMat. Now, first of all, I love that show. It's my high school experience to the "T". We had a F
ez, granted they were always female (Barbie and Tanya), but the foreign exchange students always hung out with our group. We had our Donna & Eric (Scott & Jenny), our Hyde (my best friend, Ed - he even lived at my house for a while), our Jackie (male versions, Eric & JT), our Lori (the slutty sister, not my sister though), and even our own Kelso (though I can't think of his name now). And although on the show they graduated in 1979, that's pretty close to my 1978.
ez, granted they were always female (Barbie and Tanya), but the foreign exchange students always hung out with our group. We had our Donna & Eric (Scott & Jenny), our Hyde (my best friend, Ed - he even lived at my house for a while), our Jackie (male versions, Eric & JT), our Lori (the slutty sister, not my sister though), and even our own Kelso (though I can't think of his name now). And although on the show they graduated in 1979, that's pretty close to my 1978..... Anyway, I've been thinking about how PhotoMats were huge for a while there and then, thanks to 1 hr and digital photos, they disappeared off the face of the earth.
.... Now, here's my point: if you have to ask "What IS a PhotoMat", then you are automatically crossed off my dating list for being too young. Yup, sorry. But if you have to read the next paragraph to see what a PhotoMat is, we just can't go out.
.... Just like the SnoCone booths that have cropped up everywhere, PhotoMats were little buildings like the one in the picture where you could drop off your film (remember film? no? sorry, no dinner and a movie for you), and then pick up your pictures a couple of days later. Just like everyone else, they sent the film in to some huge lab somewhere in California, Ohio or Iowa (it was definitely in the USA) to be developed and then held onto them until you came to pick them up.
.... Don't ask me why I felt the need to blog about PhotoMats. It's just something from my younger days that have been wiped off the face of the earth by the digital age. Like stickball, bore-a-hole, big ol' station wagons with fake side paneling and, uhum, spin-the-bottle.
4 comments:
Wow. I'd forgotten about photomats. Probably because I never used them -- my local grocery store had a film drop box, which amounted to the same thing.
Did you know that Kodak is going to stop making film? Odd. I know that there will always be a few people who use film cameras, so it seems that someone ought to manufacture the stuff as a specialty item.
Hmmm... dating criteria. Well, yours is fairer than most I see on singles' websites. At least you want someone near your own age. Most guys would prefer women who DIDN'T remember photomats. And most guys have weight requirements.
Me? I no longer have dating requirements because they are unnecessary; I don't date. (I do usually end up describing you to people who don't know you as "the closest thing to a date I ever have.")
Anyway, I thought it was a funny post.
Although I do know what a Photomat was, I think that was a suburban thing. Here in the city, we just dropped the film off at the local drugstore.
Writer - yeah, it was pretty much a tongue-in-cheek thing anyway, the whole dating slant. I'm glad you thought it was funny, that's why I wrote it that way. I heard about Kodak, really weird to think that film will no longer be accessable. I haven't heard if any of the other major film makers (like Fuji) are planning the same thing. I grew up with a little Kodak Instamatic camera in my hand, and all through my senior year developed and printed my own black and white pictures. Weird, man, weird.
Jannx - I think you're right there, they were always in the parking lots of malls or big shopping centers. Surburbia was always more dependent on cars that the city. All 4 of my grandparents lived in NYC for 60 years or so, and my mom's father was the only one to ever own a car.
I lived in Edinburgh for a year without a car. And I only used a taxi to get to and from the airport and once to help get an ill friend to a doctor. I took the bus once to the outskirts of town. and the rest of the time I just walked everywhere.
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