1973

[al_kaplan1]

An OM-1 was an Olympus SLR which was smaller than most any other SLR except for the Olympus Pen F which was half frame.

[albert_smith]

In 1973, before self-serve gas, I'd roll in to the pumps on my motorcycle and tell the attendant, "Fill it up or a Dollar's worth, which ever comes first."

 

Yesterday, I think I dripped a Dollar's worth on to the ground when I pulled the nozzle from the filler port of my car.

[dg1]

In 1973 I was 23, married 4 years, had a steady gig playing guitar 7 nights a week an upscale restaurant nightclub, and was finally making some money. So naturally, we quit our jobs and loaded up our 1964 VW camper bus and headed northwest toward Vancouver, BC. Took off for the whole summer, 2 1/2 months on the road. I had my funky TLR, a Ricoh VI my father had brought back from his stint in Korea, and a Kodak 126 Brownie. We camped our way through places like Banff and Jasper, arrived in Vancouver with only the handbrake operational, got some brakes, then ended up finally on Galliano Island, and later Vancouver Island, driving over the mountain range on thread bare tires, then stranded on Long Beach for 2 weeks when the VW wouldn't start and there was a ferry strike anyway. Lost our dog in Vancouver. Found him again. Headed back to Minnesota through NW USA, stayed in Glacier...unemployed when we got back, wondering ever since why we didn't just stay in BC. Especially now that G. Wacko is in office.

[matt_chamberlain]

T minus 7 years.

[harvey_trautenberg1]

When I was twenty-one, it was a very good year.

It was a very good year for city

girls who lived up the stairs

With perfume hair that came undone

when I was twenty-one.

[paul_neuthaler]

1973 was one year after I had received my Doctorate from Columbia & nobody was rushing to hire me for anything. So after much anguish & one marriage down the toilet, I came up with an idea to create tax shelters in book publishing & retired two years later!! My camera at the time was an M3 (#1,134,707), a rigid Summicron & a 135 Elmar 1:4 together with a MR4 meter & a Tiltall tripod. I will always remember that serial number for God knows what reason. I sold the camera in 1975.

[35mmdelux]

Turned 21 that year and was promoted to corporal in the Army Engineers (US). Got a lucky post to Headquarters V Corp, Frankfurt, West Germany. Managed to avoid the killing in VietNam.

Had a Yashica SLR with a trusty 50mm lens, still have both, and shot pictures along the barbed wire river border of East & West Berlin - got a few good ones. Used kodachrome because I thought it was good stuff. Saw La Jaconda (Mona Lisa) for the first time.

[hugon]

nice thread;insightful;****

[claude_batmanghelidj]

I was eight years old and living in Teheran. I was dating a girl called Collete. We used to french kiss on my couch when she came over, we were really hot and heavy, I was definitely a chile of the 60's.

 

In November we took a train from Teheran to London, it took about three weeks, with stops in Istanbul and Munich. Munich was great, the first time I slept under an eider down in my life, and snow, and department stores with Grundig radios. I was too young to be lusting after Leicas!

[sprouty]

<I>"...when she came over, we were really hot and heavy, I was definitely a <B>chile</B> of the 60's.</I>

<P>

I don't care if that's a spelling mistake or not, that's the funniest turn of phrase I've heard in a while.

[stephen_w.]

You did all that when you were EIGHT?

[pensacolaphoto]

I was in highschool, fending off Baathist students who were actively recruiting students to join the Baath party. Saddam Hussein was in power. Life in Baghdad was exiting in those times. Everything was booming. There were billions of dollars surplus, and construction was booming. There was hardly any social life for young people. I was using my dad's Zeiss Contina. Film developing really was lousy in Iraq.

[andy m.]

Frank. You, the Electrofying Yashica and the cute li'l CL sure go back a long way.

[owen w.]

I graduated from college in 1973. I was 19, and set off to hitch to NY, buy a dirt-cheap $200RT air ticket to London, and then hitch-hike to Nepal. I turned 20 on the Afghanistan border. I had a 110 Instamatic that I sold when I couldn't find film in India. One of my few regrets was not learning anything about photography until I was in grad school.<div></div>

[ben z]

1973...the son of my parents' friends was killed in Vietnam, 3 days later I turned 18 and had to register for the draft, my mother was hysterical and had my father making plans to send me up to Canada. Fortunately the war and the draft ended soon after and I got to stay in the US and go to college. My high school girlfriend who I thought I was breaking up with by going away to school, decided to transfer up in the fall, leading to about 3 months of me trying not to get caught hounddogging, of course she did catch me which led to 3 more months of her hysterics, which led to me almost flunking out, which led to my father almost kicking my butt up to Canada after all. At least I had a good camera, my first Pentax which I still have.

[ray_nieves]

1973..in college in NY, drove a very cool '69 Dodge Charger R/T, in Air Force ROTC, karate team, dated some lovely ladies, on college paper and yearbook as a photographer. Frats and disco clubs: danced the hustle every Sat night in NYC discos. Minolta SRT-101 and 5 lenses, which I thought was just the best, also a pocket Rollei 35 and a Rolleiflex TLR. Tons of Tri-X was used, enlarged on a Beseler. Wanted the new Leica CL, didn't know it was a Minolta, could not afford it. Got one a few years later.

[donsorsa]

I was 22, living in Atlanta, working at the Clayton Water Pollution Control facility (sewage plant), driving a 1967 Beetle, working with Viet vets and others in antiwar and civil-rights organizations, shooting and developing tri-x. I was unencumbered and very hopeful; my 16 year son thinks that's the kind of life he wants.

[absinthe]

heh, I was 1, learning how to cause havoc around the apartment in Woodside, Qns. I taunted the large Afghan hound named Alfi and finally figured out that my eyes were hazel, not blue.

[icuneko]

In 1973 I was day-dreaming of becoming a PN moderator. Alas ...

[dennis_couvillion]

May 20, 1973... serious motorcycle crash when a station wagon crossed my path. Norton 750 Commando... totalled. Hospital... one month. Was given the last rights by a priest because they thought I was going to die. Oh yea, 1973... how can I ever forget it?

[nemeng]

I can't believe no one has mentioned Watergate yet.

 

Nor the Yom Kippur War (at one stage of which the USA went to Defcon 3).

 

Of course the war led directly to the Arab Oil embargo, which led to a massive increase in oil prices (both in 1973), which later led to 70s stagflation, Punk Rock, Thatcherism, Reganomics etc.

 

Needless to say, a fascinating year. And I was only nine... :?)

[stephen_w.]

"I can't believe no one has mentioned..."

 

Because most were personal stories, not who won the world series...

 

Nothing particlarly interesting happened to me in 1973 other than Ohio State tying Michigan and they (OSU) got to go the the Rose Bowl for the second straight year unlike past years when UM would've gone, pissed us all off. I was 13.

[frank granovski]

Nice hair, Owen. I had hair like that up until '72, then I chopped it off to become a grasshopper. Now I can walk on water. These days I get my hair cut twice a year, whether I need to or not. ;*)

 

The new forum software or layout crashes my computer. So I probably won't come back 'til it's fixed or 'til the fall when I buy a new computer. Hopefully everyone will behave themselves. ;*)

[rick_helmke]

1973-I was 13 and discovered girls and a print coming up in a tray of Dektol in the same year. I went from a Kodak X-15 to a Minolta Himatic 5 from J.C. Penney's. I've got an X-15 but wish I could find a Himatic 5.

 

Rick H.

[dennis_couvillion]

"Back then, a nickel bag really meant something."

 

ROFLMAO! I hear ya, man...