Herco Imperial and a sucky vacation

<a

href="http://westfordcomp.com/foundfilm/kodacolorx/hercoimperial/herc

oimperial.htm">Lousy vacations from your youth.</a>

Yup, being dragged around on a sucky vaction by a father who'd photograph civil war monuments with a Herco no doubt scarred the poor kid for life. No telling what he'd have amounted to if he'd lived a normal kidhood. As it is he probably grew up to be someone who spends his spare time and loose change collecting old cameras.

TODD

 

Ha !

Yeah, my dad took us on sucky vacations too. He kept taking us on fishing trips to a lake or some creek out in the woods. I'd run away to climb a tree or something else fun, like poking a stick down a badger hole, but dad always caught me and made me get back to fishing, again.

 

I have one of these Imperials. I was going to do a little write up on it, but even with fresh film my shots came out worse than this poor kid's vacation.

Great thread, fun pictures. Ha! This makes me want to scan some of my dad's old pictures (taken with the Richard Six that I showed you guys a few days ago - see 'Goldi' thread). Maybe I will just do that next Sunday.

I dunno Gene, that shot of you sitting on the cannon proves that you were not a glass half full kind of kid. You were a big thinker even then! My dad used to drag us along on boring vacations back in the '60s also. I remember staring at Stone Mountain thinking, what the? My father was in Army Intelligence (an oxy-moron) after WWII and dragged us along to view Military Installations for some reason. What great trips that made for! His favorite cameras were his Voitlander Bessa and a HUGE Polaroid that must have weighed 5 pounds. He also took his Keystone 8mm movie camera and shot countless miles of footage of things like your father shot, and he then had to show everybody movies from shirtail relatives to the mailman!<p>Randy Jay

I call this our "Grapes of Wrath" vacation...I'm the youngest. Mary<div></div>

Uh, that's not me sitting on the canon. The camera came from a thrift shop in Oklahoma. I developed the....oh, forget it.

We all know Gene would have been the kid playing with black powder INSIDE the canon ;) When I used to go hiking and fishing with my dad, I always thought that was a great holiday. I recall a time where I was pulling the walleye out faster than he could unhook them and rebait my line. (I was 5)

MARY DANGER

 

Priceless photograph. Grapes of Wrath indeed. I'd LOVE to have that woody wagon.

You got vacations?!!!

 

We got to walk to the resevoir and swim naked with the little fish biting us. And that was only once a summer. And it was 5 miles uphill both ways.

 

Some people.

 

Nice camera BTW.

 

tim in san jose

For what its worth, these are in Gettysburg,Pa.

The first monnument pictured is the Virginia monument. This is also the close-up photo. The second is the Peace Light Eternal Flame. This was turned off during the energy crunch of the 70's.

The cannon could be just about anywhere on the Battlefield.

If I had to guess, I would say these were taken sometime around the Centennial in 1963. How do I know these things? Two weeks every summer for the first 17 years of my life were spent with Mom's family in Gettysburg.

I was a lucky kid - we often vactioned at relatives homes in southern Oregon. Swimming, horses, wild blackberries (damn thorns!). Then there was the trip to Disneyland (twice). We saved educational events for day trips to the San Francisco museums.

 

Robert

J.Ed Baker

 

Thank you. I'll bring the kids from my next marriage there.

Hi Gene! In early 1949 we drove to Phoenix from Ohio to visit my mom's brother. My sis and I think dad borrowed the car for the trip. What is interesting to me is that this shot looks like it was taken with a flash probably in AZ because we're wearing light clothing. I want to know, where's my carseat? Mary

J.Ed Baker

 

Having grown up about 30 miles from Gettysburg, it was never much of a vacation to us, just a day trip when company came to town. Of course later, in highschool, we would often hook school to go to the battlefields. I mean, nobody notices a bunch of highschool kids at G-Burg on a school day.

 

tim in san jose