Lost and Found

Can you still get film developed at a drug store?

I asked myself this question after reading one of my kids' Berenstain Bear books. The book was about the worst vacation the Bear family ever took. It was filled with stinky skunks, sunken boats, and leaky roofs. At the end of the book, Mama takes the film to the drugstore, waits a few days, and goes back to get the pictures to share with the family. 


After reading the passage, I looked over at my kids (4 and 1 1/2) and wondered to myself if they would even understand what film is when they got older. I suppose they will still have pop references in songs, but I haven't used the real stuff for at least five years, probably longer. We still have the old cameras, though. 


I know because I found them while looking for our lost digital camera. 


It is amazing how a lost item can drive you crazy. This past weekend, not only did we lose the digital camera, we discovered that the shovels were lost too. I don't know where those could have gone either. At least all four items are together, wherever they are. 


When you discover things are lost, there is a reliable chain of events that goes on. First, you look in all of the obvious places the item might be. In the case of our digital camera, that included its normal resting place on top of the buffet, also on the desk near the computer (you get the idea). Then, you look for it in all of the unusual, but still perhaps possible places it might be. Those might include the kids' room, under the couch cushions, etc... 

Then some helpful soul, who invariably is not helping you look for the lost item as they should be, suggests that you think back to where you saw it last and retrace your steps. Eureka! 

Well, not really. Those shovels walked off last fall and could be at one of several friends' houses, or the dump for all that I know. The camera might have had a better prognosis. It was last seen taking pictures of items to be listed on Craigslist. But then, we rearranged the furniture, and it disappeared. Back to square one. 


The final effort on my part, was to begin a CSI search of the house, flashlight and all. I started in the mudroom, opened every cabinet, checked every clothes hamper. I looked in places so impossible for a camera to hide, that finding one there would have been tantamount to discovering the missing human evolutionary link under an old service manual in my junk drawer.

Nevertheless, I looked in those places too. I discovered, with my flashlight and latex gloves (OK, so I didn't wear latex gloves, or even yellow kitchen gloves. The ones my wife buys are too small for my hands. But I would have.) dozens of lost toys, a nice ladies bracelet, and that the couch really needs spring cleaning.

I looked in the vehicles, in shoes, in the cellar doorway, and in closets containing big people and small people clothing. I looked int he garage, and in the barn. It was quite extensive, take my word for it.


I never found the shovels, or the digital camera. I did find the big, old, reliable, and hard to lose 35mm SLR cameras. Does anyone know if the drugstore still develops film?