Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there!

Here's a photo of my dad and me in Morro Bay, California in 1963:

And, on the same trip, my grandfather in his boat:

Both pictures were taken with my first camera, an Imperial Lark. My mom took the top photo and I took the bottom one.

Incidentally, I was going through one of my packing boxes from my move to New Mexico the other day and I found my Imperial Lark camera. My parents got it for me in Spring, 1963.

Here it is:

The Imperial Lark took 127 size Kodak film. I used it for years until I got a Kodak Instamatic. Even if it still worked (it might, I don't know), I doubt one can find that sized film roll today.

That camera got me started as a chronic shutter-bug!

On the Imperial Lark (from Camera Wiki):

The Lark is a 1960s plastic camera from Imperial (formerly Herbert George) of Chicago, Illinois. It appears to be a revision of the Imperial Mark 27 but with a restyled top housing which includes a "bug eye" flash reflector for flashbulbs. It exposes images 4×4 cm square onto 127 film, advanced with a knob on the camera bottom.

At Historic Camera:

The Imperial Lark camera was originally manufactured by the Herbert George Company of Chicago Illinois in the 1950s and later by the Imperial Camera Corporation. It was a simple and inexpensive snap shot camera made of plastic that incorporated the view finder and flash unit as part of the camera. It featured a simple fixed focus meniscus lens, and a switch to adjust the aperture for color or black and white film. It was capable of capturing 2 X 2 inch color slides, kodacolor or B&W pictures on number 127 roll film. It used the small No. AG-1 flash bulbs sometimes called "jelly beans" bulbs. It was priced at approximately $4.79. 

It's amazing that it retailed for under $5.00!