"KISS" principle......."Keep It Simple Stupid"

"Change" & I don't get along. Never have. (One of the many reasons I don't support Obama). I'm one of those people from the old school------"if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

One of the reasons old cars surround our place, is that they are equipped with the necessities........radio, heater, easy to fix if something DOES break..........not laden with computers, oxygen and thermo-magnitude sensors, and all the rest of the goofy crap the government and EPA says we just CAN'T do without!

I had an old self-winding Timex watch that went through Vietnam with me and would still be working today, if I hadn't broken it working on a car back in the late 70's. (NOW, everything has to be "battery-powered & DIGITAL!!)".......I don't like digital..........

Videotape.........then we all had to start buying DVD's............and after we spend enough money on THOSE, they'll come up with yet something else, and phase dvd players OUT, so we'll HAVE to invest in all this newer stuff.

The "Cash for Clunkers" is all about that same thing---get all the OLD stuff off the road if we can----and the public will HAVE to buy "new" whether they can afford it or not.

It's a "communist plot"---------as I always used to call everything I didn't like!!....(sometimes, I actually think it IS!)

ANYWAY.......when I was getting ready to go back to 'Nam with "Pop", I knew it would be a one-time deal, so I'd better buy a camcorder and learn to use it. I looked around in the ads, and R.C. Willey up in Boise, seemed to have a pretty good selection.

Well..........I'm up there with this enthusiastic young salesman, and I told him that I was still using an Instamatic camera for my "STILL" shots because it took good pictures and was easy to use-----basically "point and shoot".....(like a Smith & Wesson).

I was looking for a CAMCORDER that you didn't need a college degree to operate, and I was looking at this little JVC they had. It basically had an on/off switch, a zoom IN & OUT and a lens cap. It was around $200.00.......YEAH......looked good to me........

But this energetic young dude was trying to show me these other camcorders......one of them had a flip-out panel with a multi-faceted screen and seemingly more buttons and gadgets than you'd find on the Space Shuttle!

"I just want something SIMPLE", I said for the SECOND time.

So now he shows me this SONY or PANASONIC (whatever it was), and IT has a couple of dozen things you can "program into it", hook it into your computer's hard-drive and reach the planet Mars or whatever......and I stopped him for the last time.........

"LOOK"............I don't NEED to know the altitude of Boogyman Village in the Alps, nor do I need to know the ambient temperature in Rio De Janeiro...........tell me about this little JVC here!"

"Well" he says, "these models are being phased out because people want something more now..........they really AREN'T much of a camera......all you can do is zoom in and out, and that's about all"

"Thank you son.....now we're on the same page..........BOX IT UP, and point me to the VHS-C film cartridges!"

It takes BEAUTIFUL movies! I practiced with it around town......filmed Vietnam, and have used it on vacations, weekend trips, grand daughters school concerts, gun filming, car shows...........you name it. Two hundred bucks..........NEVER a problem, and the quality is just as good as anything else I've seen from those "high-tech thousand-dollar jobs"...........and with just an on/off switch, it's basically "Mikey-proof."

Yep........it ain't much of a camera.

The Volkswagen Beetle ain't much of a car.......but they're still on the road FIFTY YEARS LATER!

Human nature.....ya get something that works, and someone INVARIABLY has to SCREW with it!

PS.......a year or so ago, 35mm film supplies started going away. They had all but phased out my ASA-100 speed film that I LOVED for still shots..........NOW we're getting into this "digital" crap. I had to take our daughter up to Wally-World WITH me, to help me pick out one of the little Canons, and Pam still giggles today that I have finally gotten into the "21st Century!"

I don't like it here though...........I wanna go home!

PS.......the kids can HAVE their "Hot Wheels"........I want my TONKA trucks back...........the ALL-STEEL ones!