Dark Rooms and Pictures...

I was reading Slight Detour and she
was talking about how she went to
local paper when she was teaching,
and she watched as they developed
pictures. Which struck up a memory.

My mother had a friend who was a
photographer for the U.S. Naval War College
in Newport, R.I. And he taught her how
to develop her own pictures.

We had a Cape Cod house, so there
were not a lot of rooms in the house. The only
one she could do was the bathroom. As it
was small but also had one tiny window, so
could be blacked out with paper making it
a good dark room for her.

My brother and I would be warn
with death if we ever ever open that
door when it was shut. Now I don't know
why, but that is like telling kids to not put
beans up your nose. (which she would say and
of course we would do, as soon as she
left to go out to dinner with my dad.) Maybe
she figured we would be busy doing that and
not other things.

But I wander here. We use to smell
horrible smells coming from under the
door. And if she trusted us.. one at a
time, she would take us inside to see
what she was doing. But don't touch
the door, no matter how much it stank.
We could watch her run the film thru 3 baths.
And hang the negatives from the shower curtain
on a heavy string by clothes pins.

It was with wonderment as she turn on
the red light, and put in the negative and we
would see the picture show up on the blank
paper below. And watched as she enlarged
it to fill up the page. And to watch her run
the film thru 3 baths.

I am sure she did this so we would
understand why not to open the door.
Which worked. We never open the door
again. But she did.. when I told her thru
the door that, my brother had let the inheat
female dog out of the basement with our
other male dog... she flew out of that
room.....door open... pictures ruin...
one spanked son... one smiling sister.

Gosh, what a pain I must have been.