DelBloggolo: PICTURES PERFECT

Sunday, March 22, 2015

PICTURES PERFECT

“People who take a lot of ‘selfies’ are just trying to save face.”

Long ago, before things were so instantaneous, time was a major factor in life. Everything it seemed took time, not only hours but: sometimes days and even weeks. Today it seems there is very little left to look forward to.

When I was a youngster and living in Brooklyn, life was slow, there was no rush because there was no point unless you were late for school or church or even work, otherwise you did what deed was needed and that was it.

It took a while to wash and dry clothes because although we had washing machines, and they were not as efficient as they are today, there was no such thing as a dryer, you hung the clothes out on a line and they dried by the mercy of the weather. If you knew rain was predicted, you even delayed washing your clothing a day or two, or if things got desperate, you hung the clothes in the hallway on makeshift lines.

You had to go to a pizza parlor to order a pizza pie, there was no such thing as ordering by phone in most pizzerias, so you trudged down to the pizza place, told them what you wanted and waited at least twenty minutes, then took it home. In today’s world, you call and it is delivered in 30 minutes.

You went to a supermarket and as you checked out, it took time. The cashier would poke in each

price into the register and then the machine would erupt into convulsions while it tallied up the total, you were given a long piece or strip of paper with the final amount and you paid cash. You counted out the money and the cashier in turn would recount it and then count out your change. Today you can scan the price yourself and pay with a credit or debit card.

But the thing I found the hardest was taking photographs. You went out and bought film, spooled it onto a spooler in the camera and closed the thing and shot your pictures. You went to a drug store or camera store and asked to have them developed. I am talking about wedding pictures or graduations: maybe even vacations and other special occasions. Then a week later you went back to the drug or camera store and hoped that most of the pictures came out, only to discover maybe that you didn’t spool the film properly and nothing came out!

But the miracle of the computer has changed all that. With what was once an expensive proposition of film and developing time is now instantaneous, you can amuse yourself taking one of the most annoying things to ever encounter in the social media: ‘selfies’, pictures of yourself and think nothing of it, all in a matter of seconds! God knows how many I took of myself for emphasis when commenting on the pages of Facebook.