Family Camera History - Part 2

I wrote a previous blog post about my family cameras found in my mother's home after her death, including my personal cameras. I found her first camera, a Kodak Six-Twenty with a film roll still inside. 

I took the camera to a local camera store that still develops film. The clerk had difficulty taking the roll out as the rewind knob was broken. He was determined to release these shots for me.

I was excited when I was called to pick up my developed pictures.

I was disappointed with the result of the 6 prints from the roll of film. But I understood now why the film was trapped inside the camera for over 60 years.

Only 3 prints were recognizable. One of them was a repeat of my brother. These photos were taken between 1952-1954 when my father was stationed in San Diego on the USS ORISKANY as a flyer.

I found some better prints of photos taken around the same time with another camera.

Since I cannot show or ask my mother about these photos, I can only assume that after she finished this roll with only 6 shots available, the rewind knob of the camera broke on her as she was trying to remove the film for development & thus, she put the camera away in a drawer. I am sure my father realized that he needed to buy her a more modern camera to continue taking pictures of their story to share with family & to preserve the story of their family. 


The history of mom's first camera, a Kodak 6-20 lasted her for 15 years. This camera took pictures as they told her story from her teens to her early married life. I am thankful she saved this unusable camera for memory sake.