Dispose of Them!
Music to Read By: ” Scattered Black and Whites” – Elbow
Saturday night’s a bad time to lose a car window. Or a wallet, or a phone, or some cameras. So, I chose all of the above when my car was broken into back in December. It was a brutal twist to a desolate holiday season, and I was shaken deeply, alone and at the end of my rope. I spent Sunday in a daze, but Monday morning, despite the freezing rain, it was time to rebuild.
I went to an auto glass place that was happy to have me, and happy to have me wait about three hours for a window to be delivered so they could put it in. Given the rain, I wasn’t about to argue. Kicking around the garage, I was antsy and restless. I missed one of my cameras – the trusty Canonet that I was just starting to love. I played with the dog that lived on the couch in the garage, but I couldn’t sit still.
Impulsively, i walked out of the garage to a drugstore and picked up a disposable camera. A disposable black and white camera no less! I walked around the yard, in the rain and I saw things I wanted to remember. It felt normal, so that was good. Life isn’t all that dramatic, and much worse things have happened to better people, but it was a moment I was profoundly thankful for.
I took the camera to Rite-Aid for some One-hour processing. One thing, they told me their “machine” was broken so it would be two to three business days. No rush I thought.
At that point, my pictures were lost.
I kept going back to Rite-Aid day after day. Nothing, nothing, nothing. The routine was the same. Go in to Rite-Aird walk back to the deserted photo counter. Try in vain to attract attention. Wander to the front and flag down some disinterested clerk to call for assistance. I went in seven times and never less waited less than twn minutes for someone to run through the same look-in-the-drawer-when-did-you-drop-them-off-check-back-thursday routine.
Eventually I gave up.
Then this week, I got the call. 984 hours after dropping them off at the one-hour photo counter, my pictures were ready. I went in to Rite-Aid, walked back to the deserted photo counter. Went behind the counter and started rifling through the drawer myself. An agitated voice instantly came over the intercom asking for assistance at the photo counter. The eye in the sky was watching the whole time.
A disapproving but too-bored-to-care clerk came over and told me to move to my side of the counter and I’d be served. I cheerfully obliged and finally got my pics. Which was good, because as it turns out there were some keepers. That disposable camera rocked!
And, I’ll never set foot in that Rite-Aid every again for any reason.
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This entry was posted on Sunday, February 1st, 2009 at 10:14 pm
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What a horrible and great story! Sucks big time that your car was broken into, but I can only imagine how excited you were when your photos were found again.
I hope you let us see more soon
“984 hours after dropping them off at the one-hour photo counter, my pictures were ready.”
This may be the best sentence you have ever written.