Worth 1,000 Words?

In a nod to the whole "kids have it so easy these days," "I used to walk 5 miles uphill in the snow to school" movement, I will add my two cents.

My kids are totally spoiled when it comes to the use of my not very fancy but very useful digital camera. Something happens? Grab the camera? Want to take a video? Go for it!

When I was little, we had an Instamatic camera. I've shared in the past that we would get little film cartridges of 12 or 20 pictures that started on the 1st day of school in September and went all the way through Christmas and Easter. With 3 kids and at least 3 major holidays for the one roll, the likelihood of my being photographed or getting my grimy little hands on the camera were pretty slim.

In fact, as the youngest of 3, I was pretty low in the documenting pecking order anyway. Half the pics were usually blurry, and that's IF someone remembered to put the little flashbulb cube on top. I complained bitterly to my mom about the injustice of it all and she would just shrug, eat another gumdrop, and banish me from the kitchen while she and her girlfriends talked about "Grown-up matters."

When I was able to sneak the camera out of the house, I would try to get all artsy by photographing a crocus, some forsythia, or our cat. At some point my mom forbade us to take any more pictures of "Animals or Scenery."

Now some parents in the 70's did have cool cameras with, like, lenses and stuff. They were the ones who had awesome black and white closeups of each child, and they probably even got a few delivery or post delivery pics in the hospital. They developed their own prints and didn't stick to the one or two rolls a year rule.

We were not that family. And we went straight from the Instamatic, to the Polaroid, to the Godforsaken DISC, so things didn't really improve until at least the 90's. I've already shared with you that I wish we had more pics of my mom.

But back to my kids. I was uploading from my camera today and found 45, yes 45, pictures of either our dog, or a cantaloupe. I think it must be a special cantaloupe. Tell me if you think these constitute "Animals and Scenery" or at least "Animals and Still Life."

So I guess they are spoiled. The good news I think they have creative flair AND I didn't hear a peep of fighting out of them for at least an hour.