Yashica Dreams - tale of two f-stops

I bought my first camera, a 35 mm Yashica rangefinder during the summer of 1968.  I ached for that camera for weeks before purchasing it from one of the many electronics stores that line both sides of Canal Street in New Orleans. 

The Yashica was great and let you do the focusing, set the f-stop and the shutter speed.  Of course, if the printed picture was over or underexposed, or out of focus you had no one to blame but yourself. 

The sturdy Yashica took awesome photos but I soon decided that I couldn’t live another day without a single lens reflex.  Since I couldn’t afford a more expensive brand with interchangeable lenses, I settled for a fixed-lens, Kowa SLR.  It wasn’t as sturdy as the Yashica nor did it take pictures even half as good, but I kept it until it finally locked up on me. 

Gail and I had little money for cameras after we married but I did manage to purchase a Minolta SRT-101 while passing through Japan on the way back to Vietnam from R & R.  The Minolta was another awesome camera that finally, like all SLRs, finally broke because of all its moving parts.  Since the Minolta, I’ve owned many more cameras.  My latest purchase arrived this very day, an old Pentax K1000 with a 50 mm lens. 

No one buys 35 mm SLRs anymore.  Well, except me.  A few years ago, on a surfing trip through eBay, I purchased ten or so SLRs of various makes and models.  I have so many cameras and lenses that I can never use them all, and, well, I’ve now discovered digital photography. 

I have a tiny little Nikon that takes wonderful pictures and movies if I feel like it.  I can download them instantly to my computer and crop, touch-up and doctor any photo to my heart’s content, or delete it completely if I don’t like it. 

Unlike my old Yashica, the Nikon performs all the tasks for me. I barely have to think about it.  I love it, but sometimes, usually, late at night and after quaffing a few strong brews I regret the loss of choice and decision I had back in 1968, but not enough to give up my little Nikon.

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All of Eric's books are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and on his iBook author pages, and his Website.

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Primal Creatures on Sale at Amazon and B&N

When a movie producer asks Wyatt Thomas to investigate a strange death on an island in the wetlands south of New Orleans, the French Quarter's favorite sleuth finds himself fast-stepping to avoid a similar fate. Did wild dogs cause the death, or a rougarou, a Cajun werewolf, as the  voodoo woman in a village on the bay has said. Primal Creatures, regularly priced at $3.99, is on sale for only $0.99 for a limited time. Read Primal Creatures on Amazon, and Barnes & Noble at a discounted price and catch the magic.

Primal - Amazon

Primal - B&N

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A Halloween to Remember

Halloween was on a Friday, so we planned the big bash for Saturday.  Not all of our guests got the message as three revelers showed up for the party Friday night. Born on the day before Halloween, I seem forever destined to be connected to that holiday.

Anne and I married early in 1980 and decided to host a Halloween party that year.

Jakob, an Israeli expatriate that was doing stonework around our house for us, showed up as a cowboy.  He was soon followed by Nancy, a geologist, dressed, strangely enough, as an Indian princess.  John, another geologist, showed up a little later, his only costume a mask. 

Nonplussed, Anne and I broke out the alcohol.  There was a championship boxing match on television that night - Oklahoma City's own Sean O'Grady versus James Watt, a Scottish boxer.  The fight took place in Glasgow, Scotland and to say that there was a bit of home cooking going on is but a mild statement.  After a few rounds, Watt head-butted Sean resulting in a horrible cut over his eye.  Watt should have been disqualified and O'Grady declared the winner.  Instead, the local judges ruled the cut caused by a punch rather than a head-butt. 

Those days there was no rule about excessive bleeding.  To say that there was a little blood strewn around the ring would be a true understatement.  The ring looked more like the inside of a working slaughterhouse, all the viewers, including myself, in shock and totally aghast.  The fight was soon called and Watt proclaimed the world champion. 

We went on to drink, carouse and to celebrate into the wee hours, neither Anne nor I in shape for the real Halloween party that continued as planned the next day. 

A few years later I met Sean O'Grady at a Christmas Party in Oklahoma City.  The room was crowded and I was standing against a wall, sipping my whiskey.  When O'Grady spotted me, he pushed his way through the crowd, looked me straight in the eye and said, "You look just like "Little Red" Lopez." 

He wasn't smiling and I could tell from his expression and the clench of his fists that he was getting ready to hit me.  Having seen his devastating punching power on more than one occasion, I immediately raised my right palm. 

"Believe me, I'm not "Little Red" Lopez.  I'm one of your biggest fans." 

Sean smiled and we proceeded to have a nice conversation.  Lopez, it seems, had beaten the teenaged O'Grady and he had never forgotten or forgiven.  I have posted a picture of "Little Red" on my photo page so you can see for yourself that I look nothing like the former boxer. 

That was the first Halloween party that I hosted, eventful like everyone else that followed.  I have another Sean O'Grady story but I'll save it for another day.

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All of Eric's books are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and on his iBook author pages, and his Website.

Old Creole Winter Okra Soup - a weekend recipe

In Black Magic Woman,  my French Quarter Mystery No. 4, Wyatt Thomas, and Mama Mulate's latest squeeze Jason Fasempaur travel back to old New Orleans, circa 1845 to implore voodoo high priestess Madam Marie Laveau to help them lift a curse that is plaguing Wyatt. While there, they visit a haunted plantation on River Road and a townhouse in New Orleans. Wyatt also fights a duel with a French sword master. When Jason visits the rustic kitchen of the New Orleans’ townhouse, he enjoys a bowl of cook Sarah's delectable soup that he declares ‘a taste of heaven.’ Here is Sarah’s recipe. Try it, and I think you’ll agree with Jason.

Old Creole Winter Okra Soup

Ingredients

      ·         3 pints Okra

·         6 tomatoes, fresh

·         2 onions

·         2 T butter

·         2 dozen oysters

·         3 T rice

·         1 red pepper pod, deseeded

Directions

Wash and stem the okra, and then slice it very fine. Chop the tomatoes finely and preserve the juice. Chop the onions finely, and then fry them in the butter, in a large pot. Wash the rice well. Slow stew the onions, tomatoes and juice, and pepper in about three quarts of water and one pint of oyster juice for three hours, stirring frequently. Don’t add the okra and rice until ten minutes before serving, then let it come to a boil. Drop in the oysters, boil up once, and serve.

Note: South Louisiana usually has a long growing season, but the Creoles of New Orleans didn’t have fresh okra and tomatoes during the winter. They resolved this problem by canning fruits and vegetables during the months they were plentiful. To follow the original recipe, use one can (jar) of okra, and one can (jar) of tomatoes instead of fresh okra and tomatoes. Either way, it's wonderful.

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Born near Black Bayou in the little Louisiana town of Vivian, Eric Wilder grew up listening to his grandmother’s tales of politics, corruption, and ghosts that haunt the night. He now lives in Oklahoma where he continues to pen mysteries and short stories with a southern accent. He is the author of the French Quarter Mystery Series set in New Orleans and the Paranormal Cowboy Series. Please check it out on his Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBook author pages. You might also like to check out his website.