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Show jpix it's a woman's BY MARY LEE What's your hobby? If it's taking pictures you're with the majority of Americans. According to a 1968 survey (by Mechanix Illustrated magazine), mag-azine), photography is the number one leisure time activity, activ-ity, and listening to hi-fi is the second. It is estimated that there are 2,750,000 photo hobbyists hob-byists in the country. Still another survey (by Modern Photography) showed that 65 percent of the families in the USA take photographs, and they average about 67 pictures a year. That's a pretty good record of growth when you consider that the first camera by Kodak was introduced back in 1888. It came loaded with film for 100 pictures and cost $25. But you had to send the entire camera back to Rochester, N.Y., to have the film processed. proc-essed. Then, the prints and camera reloaded with film were returned to you for a charge of $10. You can imagine what a stir was caused 12 years later when the famous "Brownie" made its appearance for only $1. And the 6-exposure film which took 2Vi x 2 Vi -inch snapshots was only 15 cents. Besides that, for an additional 75 cents you could go get a kit to develop and print your own pictures. Those days and prices are gone forever, but the development develop-ment of cameras has been outstanding. out-standing. Today you have color, sound, movement, instant in-stant developing. Grandpa would have been astounded. Another leisure pastime that is making news lately is in the children's game department. Only the games have become adult entertainment. Along with tic tac t,oe, chess, checkers, and jig-saw puzzles, whole families are taking up such things as Instant Insanity, Insan-ity, Deelie Bobbers, and Soma. |