Photo Booths, Father's Day, and Nostalgia
Every year in early June, beginning in 2008 when my daughter was just 8 months old, we have hit a photo booth to take some silly old timey photo strips for her daddy as a Father's Day gift. Previously we had been venturing downtown to the lobby of the Ace Hotel, but this year we learned there is a photo booth at the NE VooDoo Doughnuts, and well, what is more enticing to a toddler than a doughnut? That's right, not much.
Have you been in Portland long enough to remember the old version of Mall 205? What about Newberry's downtown? Both were a bit on the scuzzy side, but both also offered photo booths back in the day, and I am ever so grateful for that. I love looking back at the photo strips of me and my girlfriends, overly lipsticked and hairsprayed, crammed into the booth, sporting our best tough girl looks.
Even better are the strips from my summers on the Jersey Shore, long before there was a show that would make you picture people that are more likely to turn up at the Staten Island Mall than the gorgeous boardwalked beaches I knew. The photo strips from those summers display my preteen innocence, not trying to look sexy, just hoping to preserve a moment with my friend. Oh my friend, my best friend on the East Coast, Jenny, who sported a Bon Jovi inspired perm, New Kids on the Block hats, and oversized buttons on her jean jacket. I treasure those photos.
Here are a few more of me with my daughter at the Ace when she was just under a year old, another set with her babysitter taken last summer, when we were interviewed for this article, and some from the lousy-quality but awesome looking photo booths at the Rose Festival last summer with her "favorite boy."
We have a trip to Seattle planned for late July, in honor of a friend's 40th birthday, and you better believe we will also be hitting up this amazing exhibit at the SAM. I will report back here dutifully after we do.
