We took photos in those old photo booths – making crazy faces and, just the other night, a smooch or two.  

In the 50s we were in an arcade, in Crestline on the crest of the San Bernardino mountains, and it had a photo booth –too young to smooch so we made crazy faces and for a quarter we got a thin strip of four photos.  

The arcade had stereopticon viewers and a Zoetrope revolving drum—when you looked into a slot and rotated the drum you would see a lady dancing or an athlete running or bunnies hopping. 

Sure movies existed, we had seen Bambi, but these novelties were as fascinating as the nickel arcade machines and the nickel player piano.

One Christmas our present was a View Master with several round disks—Paris scenes, Washington DC monuments, Grand Canyon in 3D! 

Innovation as one idea falls to the next and now in rapid succession we have virtual reality—the Oculus Rift VR is a head mounted display that has revolutionized the industry.

So last night we saw the Newport Christmas Boat Parade from the back yard of Palmer and Nicole Luckey.  Amazing colorama and soundarama as the boats cruised by.  

That’s where the photo booth comes in and where we took this thin strip of photos while stealing a smooch or two.