Reflections (and the super moon)
We tried a different Sunday breakfast spot again; haven't settled on a favorite one yet. Today it was Byways Cafe on NW 12th and Glisan. The ideal place would be a two to three mile walk from home, open by at least 8am, pretty traditional food, families with little kids, and tables big enough to play Bananagrams. Byways fits the bill in all but distance - it's too far away.
But, they have one long wall of curio cabinets, and look what I found at our table: a View Master Stereo camera exactly like mine! (Soozaday has one, too, right?) mine is more beat up and has a label stuck to the back that says Miss Sherry.
I found the camera at a flea market in Palo Alto, or somewhere near there, in the 70's. It came with everything including a film cutter and empty View Master reels, so you can make your own stereo reels and look at them through a black plastic viewer like the ones sold as toys during the 50's and 60's. All this was in a box that included some personal reels Miss Sherry made. It looks like she lived in San Francisco, had parakeets, and visited the National Cemetery; you find stories everywhere.
Also, in the box, were commercial reels of things like Cinderella and the Grand Canyon, but my favorite one by far is of Queen Elizabeth's Coronation. There she is, in her golden carriage, while people in the crowd hold up paper periscopes in order to see her. Just like people in crowds nowadays hold up their phones.
I carried that camera everywhere for a few years; it was such a fun and cheap way to get candid shots, a nice break from tripods, light meters, and using Ansel Adams' Zone System for making exposures. I made over 200 reels.
See Extra: not that it's such a great Super Moon shot, but we had so much fun learning about it and were happy we could see the moon at all.
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