Kodak Park was so big they had their own railroad and highway that ran through the property. They have torn down many of the buildings but these smoke stacks were still spewing something. And a sign on a building at at Ridge and Lake read, “Now Hiring.” My father worked at Hawk Eye and Elmgrove and Lee Road, all local Kodak sites, but I don’t think he ever worked at the Park. And only the execs worked at Kodak Office on Saint Paul. This was a company town at one point.
Our friend, John, worked at the Park for forty years. We took him out to Unity Hospital for an operation on his hand. Peggi drove and I was sitting in the back seat, listening to John’s stories about Grateful Dead shows when I took this shot. I wanted to get some of those classic 60’s buildings with the blue aluminum panels on the side but I couldn’t get my camera out of my pocket fast enough.
John had broken his finger and it wasn’t healing properly so his doctor wanted to reset it. Per instructions we helped him wrap his hand in clean cohesive tape before he got in the car. When we checked in at the hospital I was taken by how much the woman behind the desk reminded me of our friend, Kim. She started making sly jokes about what John had done with his middle finger but John was filling out the paperwork and wasn’t aware of her comments. I looked down at his hand and it did look like it was permanently in the “bird” position. I was laughing so hard I could barely tell John what I was laughing at. When I got it out we all laughed and John said, “It’s not my middle finger, it’s my ring finger. Says a lot about how my marriage worked out.”
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