Monthly Archives: January 2021

Nikon Price List, 1969

I picked this up at Kingsport Camera Shop, then on Cherokee Street, at some point while I was drooling over the new Nikon cameras. This was when photographers were beginning to acknowledge that the Japanese were rolling out excellent cameras and lenses. Single-lens reflex cameras were still fairly new in 1969 (a year earlier, I had shot Pentax SLRs at the Times-News).

Look at those prices, which I thought were sky high even then. This is just the cover. The leaflet goes on to price lenses, camera bags, medical lenses, viewfinders, photomicrographic lenses and so forth. Prices range from a high of $895 for a 220 degree Nikkor fisheye (f5.6) to fifty cents for a plastic case for a 52mm filter. The plastic body cap ran you $1.35.

Driver Manual

When I returned to Kingsport in 1967, fresh from a posting in Germany while in the care of the United States Air Force, I needed to get myself a driver’s license. I asked Dad to drive me to the Highway Patrol office on Brooks Circle, where I picked up this manual to study for my license test.

Complete with these charmingly archaic illustrations.

The photo of Governor Clement apparently had been taken sometime before the 1963 – 1964 General Assembly (it appeared in their program). He was governor from 1963 – 1967, his second term, so I suspect that this manual, complete with the clunky diagrams, was published in 1963 or so, in plenty of time for me to pick it up in 1967.

Later, I took the test, driving Dad’s old Chevy. Passed it and then only drove Dad’s car into a ditch once before buying my own (regrettable) Corvair.

Junior Police

This badge, shown as made by Stoffel Seals of Nyack NY, is undated. However, Stoffel Seals moved to Tallapoosa GA sometime in the early 2000’s and was acquired by TydenBrooks in 2010. Check the link for all the gory details.

Interestingly (to me), Stoffel Seals made almost all of the domestic airline “kiddie wings” during the heyday of air travel. I ought to know, since I’ve got a ton of them.