For this installment of the Kodak moment we travel back in time to war torn Korea; near the village of Chonan; ca. 1952. The four subjects are the children of Korean radio techs that man part of the Chonan (now spelled Cheonon) repeater station. This station was reportedly built by the Japanese during the 1930s or 1940s; and was located somewhere outside the village, just east of, and across the road to some railroad tracks that passed roughly north/south probably along the main route, also called US1 or Route 1 by American soldiers; other photos near here show lots of rice paddies and mountains close by. I’m guessing the kids are standing in an alley between the station and the building (future photos) that housed their families. It looks like the two on the left might be brother/sister. The tall girl middle right may have been named Joy. These smartly dressed youngsters were playing around the compound and rolling the barrel ring when my dad saw some good light, lined the kids up and took the shot. I wonder where they are now? Grandparents, or great grandparents by now!
This photo was taken with a Canon IVSB with 50/1.8 lens, and developed by Kodak in Hawaii. The great thing about Kodachrome film is that if stored properly, is should look as good today as it did when it was developed. Developing Kodachrome film was a complicated proprietary process, and Kodak had iron fisted control over it, that’s probably why the film holds up so well through the years. It was about 6¢ to mail it to Kodak (and probably back) during this time as the cost is on the box, not sure about developing costs then. I remember it being expensive to get a 24 roll of Kodachrome film developed in the 1980s; 24 slides with prints cost about $25, or almost $1 for each picture; unfortunately, Ektachrome was almost as expensive.
