This post is part of series. To get the full story, read Darkroom - Part 1.
Shortly before Mr. Powell reclaimed his darkroom equipment, I realized I needed to purchase my own equipment. I was working in the textile factory in Fries after school and in the Summer, so I decided to take some of my earnings and purchase the equipment. I was still in high school.
There were no places near Fries, VA to buy photography equipment in the seventies. The closest place would have been Charlotte or Bristol, VA/TN. I didn’t have the resources to go to either of those places. Photography magazines used to have pages and pages of ads for photography equipment in them. They were full-page ads with hundreds of items listed. The description was a few words and the price - something like Beseler 67C…….$179. You had to know what you were buying. Most of the larger stores were in New York City. My favorite store at the time was 42nd Street Photo.
The only way I had to trade with these stores was by mail order. I would pore over the ads in the magazines for hours or even days and get up an order. I would type out the order on my manual typewriter and figure up the amount. I would then go to the bank in Fries and get a bank check from my funds in a savings account I had with the bank. I would then put the check in an envelope with my typewritten order and go next door to the post office and put it in the mail. And wait. It was about a two-week turnaround before I would get my loot.
I now look back on this process and marvel at it. I didn’t have a credit card. I just trusted the store to take my check and process the order. What if the check got lost in the mail? My first order with 42nd Street was about $400 which to a kid from Fries, VA in the seventies was an enormous amount of money.
The first order came as I had hoped it would. I was on my to outfitting the darkroom with my own equipment and I made the best of it.