always had a sort of playful obsession with old photobooths. I don't know. there's just something about slipping into that private little booth with the adjustable stool and curtained background. your dollar bills are sucked into the machine and bright flashes of light fire and pop. at this moment, you have the freedom to be whoever you'd like to be-- you are both photographer and subject. afterwards, you wait as it miraculously spits out your strip and there you are-- goofy, fresh-faced, brave, ridiculous, tender, outrageous, sexy, odd, somber, mysterious, self-conscious, vulnerable. any of these things, all of these things, automatic and anonymous. who can resist that? digging out my personal stash (taken over the course of 34 years at dime stores and arcades all over the place) is something I find myself doing over and over and over. and I love to look at photobooth snapshots of complete strangers, too. vintage ones are best and I'm occasionally able to find them at the fleamarket (more than happy to rescue them from the bottom of a crusty old box). when I know I'm going to be traveling, I hit up the photobooth directory- a splendid little site devoted to locating them all over the country (because you just don't see them like you used to). the very thought of squeezing into a tiny booth with my family and taking home a souvenir strip or two (or TWENTY) makes me all giddy-like inside. not too long ago, ward and I were dreaming about how we would spend a massive amount of cash if we had it. and seriously, I think I would buy myself a photobooth.
Those pictures are sooooo cute! Whenever Mandy and I take these kinds of pictures, she ends up looking great while I always come out looking like a potato with glasses! Sheesh,...
ReplyDeleteAndrea! What a writer! I should not be amazed. You always were a great writer and so interesting! You now have a daily reader! Love you! Dad
ReplyDeleteYou are just like your mother! And she is a saint in my eyes! Ava and Ezra are blesse to have you and Ward as their parents!
ReplyDeleteWoohoo! What a great blog! Wonderful picture! You two look like you have a blast. I have to agree with what James said about photo booth pictures when it comes to me and my wife. She looks beautiful and I look like like a potato... minus the glasses. :D
ReplyDeleteWell, well, well another Jenkins blog. With both Mom and Pop online and Ava having the market cornered on Thursdays, I'm expect to be reading Ezra Four-O-Matic by the end of the year. Just put a keyboard in front of him and let him pound away!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the Blog-overse! I'll be reading...
What a fun hobby! I actually thought of trying to rent a photobooth for our wedding. Thought it would be so fun! Also turned out it was unrealistic and expensive :) Jeff and I used to take the stickers while we were dating, we need to do that again. Thanks for inspiring me!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations An! Your blog is terrific. You have a gift for choosing just the right words to perfectly express yourself. And I now have a way to check in with you when we don't have time to catch up on the phone! P.S. No matter what anyone says, I don't believe you can ever, ever take too many photobooth pictures.
ReplyDeleteHEY you!!!!!!!!! That's MY photobooth! GET OUT! ..... that's what i said the last time someone tried to squeeze in there before me....
ReplyDeleteRemember all the strips that Marti and i had on our door way back when...the hardest part is when you both want the same pic and you only have one and can't make a copy right then and there....
OK-so I have one here taped on my desk, from Lexington, KY of Donovan when he was 3 or 4...he wanted to go in all by himself and do his own thing....it is hilarious.
Last time i checked there were black and white's (the only REAL photobooth's in my opinion), in the basement at PinBall Pete's East Lansing, Ceder Point used to have a few, Ed Debevic's in Chicago and also this one in a hokey little joint in Lexington that we used to haunt when we opened the Sudsy's (sans the live music) down in KY...
Love yer bloggin' and keep it up.
OOOOXXXXXOOOOO to the babes and "word up" to Ward....who Donovan always calls "that D-R-A-W guy":)
such kind words, everyone. I should've started this blog-a-licious bloggedy blogging thing a LONG time ago. yes, yes, yes ward- I am totally eating my own words and take back all those smarmy little remarks I made about you blogging... there. that's as close as you're going to get to a public apology, okay?...
ReplyDeleteI have been inspired!!!!
ReplyDeletePhotobooth, photobooth. Must find photobooth
I am all the way back here at the beginning. Well, I read the first posts. But, this is the beginning of photobooth Friday. Isn't it? Anyway. I'm not a crazy stalker blogger. Just someone who likes the way you think. Hi.
ReplyDelete