Nostalgic about a photography book!

Hi Pentax friends,

We went to the Pasadena College Flea Market this weekend. It's a monthly event held the first Sunday of every Month. We don't always go but the temperature was ideal (78 Deg F) this weekend, so we went.

I always look for old cameras and old lenses. Sometimes I get lucky but most of the time, flea market sellers still think that 35mm cameras are marvels of photographic equipment judging by the prices they ask. I didn't buy any photographic equipment this time except for an old photography book. I didn't buy the book to learn anything in particular. The book was written in 1951. It's really "old-school" and the equipment and processes described in the book...primitive.

Why in the world would I purchase an old book like that? It was not written by Ansel Adams or someone famous either. The title is "How to make good pictures". I guess in today's writting, it would have been entitled "How to take good pictures". It was published by Eastman Kodak, like most books were back then.

I remember some years ago, at Christmas time, when my children were still very young, they had given me some camera "How-to" books. This book I purchased has a hand written note inside the front cover that read as follow: To my "Darling Husband" on Father's Day - 1952 Love. Joanne & Boys. It reminded me of days gone by.

I don't know who Joanne and the Boys are or were. The Dad is probably very old by now or has passed away, and Joanne too. I will probably never know. The boys are grown up now, likely with children of their own.

The book brought a note of nostalgia, and I purchased it for that reason. Sometime in the not-so-distant future, the same faith may or will happen to all of my photography books and equipment for that matter.

Hey...If you recognize the hand writting, or if you are Joanne or the boys, I would gladly return the book to you free of charges.

Thank you for reading,

Yvon Bourque