This beggars belief but is true. An amazing heartfelt story about a 35mm bulk loader with a Dymo label.
From Mike Mitchell at The Online Photographer:
The Amazing Gift of Woo Lai Wah
On my way to the basement to do some laundry, I noticed a package on my porch. It was in the usual spot where I ask delivery people to put things if there's no answer to the doorbell. Strange, though. I wasn't expecting anything; everything I'd ordered recently had been delivered.
When I came back upstairs I picked it up. It was for me, not my tenants, and it was from Hong Kong. There was no return address and the customs declaration on the side simply read "camera part." Very strange.
I took it upstairs and opened it and said to myself, wow, I used to have one of those:
So I'm thinking, what in the world is going on here?
I lifted it out of the box to examine it but immediately my attention went to what was underneath it.
What was at the bottom of the package was an amazing letter from a Ms. Woo Lai Wah and the contents were significant. Ms. Woo's family had visited the USA a few times and being into photography, had purchased several of Mike Mitchell's photographs. Later, Ms. Woo had made a trip into 'Chinese deep parts' (her words -- read the amazing letter), and found a ramshackle stand selling photographic stuff. She noticed the Mitchell name in Dymo Label on the side of the bulk loader, bought it and sent it off and it turns out that it was Mike's bulk loader from High School. (You could buy film in 100' rolls that was about 1/3 the cost of the pre-loaded cassettes.)
I used to have the same Kodak loader back when I was in High School. Wonder where mine is -- the things were built like a tank -- solid Bakelite with long felt light-locks. Were well worth the $18 or so they cost back in the 1960's (remember saving for that puppy!)
I looked at the rest of Mike Mitchell's website and really like it - added to the Blogroll...
