A stay in a Vancouver Island hotel possibly twelve to fifteen bucks a night, burgers at fast food restaurants less than a dollar. An imperial gallon of gas, around four bits. It was in ‘them those’ grammatically incorrect early nineteen sixties, I tried to squeeze out a living of sorts, photographing, publishing and selling postcards to stores. They cost about a penny and a half to print. Minimum run was six thousand of each. The stores usually paid two and a half pennies wholesale and retailed for a nickel.
Today, just a stamp is a dollar or more! It was truly a scenic experience that, in retro-spect, provides plenty of nostalgia. With the old clunker and a two and a quarter by three and a quarter inch speed graphic camera, 120 roll back and plenty of Kodak film, a tripod and plenty of photographic passion, off ‘we’ went.
Thus this song:
POSTCARDS OF YESTERDAY
The Thornton Motel in Ucluelet,
the original clas-sic Wickaninnish in Long Beach.
The Sleepy Hollow Motel in Courtenay as in memory one knew it.
All those yesterdays gone by help us teach what it was like
in the nineteen sixties driving that well used V-eight.
More often than not, only six spark plugs were firing
plus a not so slowly leaking radiator, truly a challenge to navigate.
However, the thrill of photo-graphing scenic postcards of Vancouver Island,
the scenery was so inspiring!
Island Hall in Parksville, and of course Cathedral Grove
on the way to Port Alberni.
Those images of Campbell River,
The Link and Pin logging museum, and Sayward.
Wow, plus the rhythm of Burl Ives and Johnny Cash
with a built in eight track recorder play-ing,
what a sound, what a journey.
I sure miss those old postcard days, that bellows camera,
120 roll back, Kodak film, and how!