16 July 2010
This is the reason I drove 1500 miles from Nashville to Fortuna, North Dakota. I now own 17 620 spools, 57 116s, 47 616s, 9 122s, 10 127s, and 3 130s. Most of them also have their original backing paper. Any buyers?
The story behind this lot of spools is circuitous. It began when I read about using 70mm bulk film (either movie film or photo film made for aerial photography and surveillance cameras) in a photo forum while looking for techniques to use vintage 116/616 film cameras. It turns out that 116/616 size film is virtually identical in size to 70mm film so that you can spool 70mm onto 116/616 spools without a problem. If you have the original backing paper, even better. There are also 70mm canisters and cassettes that 70mm is used in. So, I first started looking for 70mm canisters to play with. A lot on eBay got too expensive, so I missed them. I then remembered about
Film Rescue International, an outfit in Indian Head, Saskatchewan that deals in processing old film formats. I contacted Greg there about 70mm canisters. He said he’s never come across any. It then occurred to me that he must have lots of old spools from clients.In fact, he had hundreds that he said were too much of a pain to sell on eBay but he also didn’t want to throw them away. He offered a variety of 110 of them for $250 (a good deal, especially since nearly all had original backing paper on them). I passed, but he agreed to sell a few for less. Noting that he mentioned that $250 would almost cover the cost of some photo software he needed, I promptly checked on prices that I could get said software for and found out that I could get it discounted. So, I offered a barter: software for lot of old film spools. He promptly agreed. I sent the software and he transferred the spools to his American mailing contact, Bev at the Border Tavern in Fortuna, North Dakota, just over the U.S.-Canadian border. Seems as if Bev began doing favors of taking in Canadian-bound parcels for friends, who then would have them picked up from her — it ends up being a lot cheaper than paying postage from the U.S. to Canada and vice versa. Well, Greg at FRI hired her on for dropoffs. She collects inbound parcels for him and he or another employee picks them up from her every so often while dropping off outbound with her. Word of Bev’s service spread so that now she has half her tavern full of UPS-sent boxes. In any case, Sara and I went there and fetched the spools:
We chatted with Bev and her husband Gary for a good while, learning that she is actually related by marriage to Sara through nieces and cousins and knows much of one side of Sara’s family. Small world. Big spool collection:
Posted via email from goyaboy’s digital dump
16 July 2010
Today I’m heading up Highway 85 from Williston, ND to the border town of Fortuna, population 31. To be precise, I’m going to the Border Tavern to meet Bev, who works there. Bev is a contact/dropoff person for Film Rescue International, which is based in Indian Head, Saskatchewan. A guy named Greg works at FRI, and he has in his possession hundreds of old format film spools (116, 616, 122, 620, etc.) that are very hard to get (outside eBay for about $5-$10/spool). I contacted Greg via the FRI website and asked about old spools he might be willing to part with. He offered a fair price for 110 assorted spools (many with original backing paper, which makes them even more valuable) that he said were too much of a pain to sell on eBay but he didn’t want to throw them away either. Not wanting to spend $250 for the spools, I offered a barter — some software he wanted for his work in exchange for the lot of spools. He’s transfered the spools to Bev at the Border Tavern (she does mailings for FRI to U.S. customers), and I’m to pick them up from her. As Greg put it, I’ll soon have perhaps the largest collection of old film spools in the world. Now, I kind of wish he hadn’t said that because I was planning on selling half on eBay to recoup the money I spent on the software, but now I feel pressure to maintain the collection. I only need a dozen or so to use with old cameras I have, but I like the idea of having the largest collection of old film spools in the world. I wonder if there’s a Guinness Book of World Records entry for that.
Greg also tipped me off about some interesting photo sites too. The first is the ghost town of Alkabo. Technically, it might not be a ghost town, but it is listed on the Ghosts of North Dakota blog and was inhabited with a few households as of May 2010. And it has a ghost schoolhouse. So, I think it might qualify as ghost town. Anyway, as you can see from the GofND entry, it’s one big photo op. After that, it’s off to a nearby abandoned U.S. Radar Station. Greg gave me tips on where and how to slip under the fence to get at the station. I’m bringing several film cameras, but will bring the iPhone and DSLR as well for some instant gratification to post later.
23 June 2010
81 days ago, on April 1, the anniversary of the American landing in Okinawa in 1945, I publicly declared that my book manuscript, Beachheads: War, Peace, and Tourism in Postwar Okinawa would be finished on June 23, the standard date for the end of the Battle of Okinawa and Okinawa Prefecture’s Memorial Day (Irei no hi). Well, just as there is some controversy over designating June 23rd — the day the Japanese commanders of the defense, Ushijima and Cho, committed seppuku — as the end of the battle, there is some question over whether I should really be done today. You see, the Americans didn’t declare mop-up operations complete until a could weeks later, in July, and since I’m American and still have some mopping up to do with the manuscript (about 10-15 pages of mopping up, not including finalizing some footnotes), I figure I was in error to make the Japanese date my deadline. Now, I could claim September 7th as the deadest of deadlines since that is when there was a final formal surrender of the Japanese in Okinawa — five days after the formal signing of surrender documents on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. However, I think that would be pushing it a bit unreasonable. So, let’s say mop-up operations end Friday July 2. If I am not done by then, I will commit seppuku….
