I can't believe I didn't know it! It took Eastman Kodak filing for bankruptcy protection this past week for me to realize my own mother used to work there. Yes, my 100 year old mother told me about it this past Sunday after we attended the weekly worship service at the Fairport Baptist Home. It was my sister, Shirley, who asked, "Did Mom ever tell you about her short career at Kodak?"
"No," I replied. And with that, Lois Alhart shared her story.
It was her first job out of secretarial school. She was the mail clerk in the advertising department- in the basement of the offices on State Street. My mother, the entrepreneur I never knew she was, spent a year shuffling documents from one area to another. She did that for about a year before Lake Avenue Baptist Church offered her the job of church secretary. "More money and a month's vacation," says Mom, "I couldn't pass it up!".
Her short Kodak career brought back memories, though, of her "best Christmas ever!"
She can't quite remember the year, but she sure remembers the morning. It was the day she got her first Kodak Brownie camera. "I was so excited," she says, "that I didn't open any other presents. It came with six rolls of film and while everyone else opened their gifts, I just ran around taking pictures."
Then came a stunning touch of reality from her mother. "Don't forget, you will have to pay to have all those pictures developed." My mom was devastated until Aunt Bertha came to the rescue. "She said she would pay to have my pictures developed" said Mom, adding, "I wish I had kept that camera."
True, the camera is long gone. But like so many of us in this community have felt this week, the "Kodak Moment" remains- a memory to cherish for a lifetime.
-Don Alhart
January 23, 2012
