As 2012 sails across the finish line, it’s time to look back at the last twelve months of Down the Road.
Readership steadily increased this year, thanks to a base built on readership surges when three of my posts were Freshly Pressed in 2010 and 2011. Nothing I wrote this year tickled the Freshly Pressed editors’ fancy, but I can’t complain; lightning has struck here thrice. Also, it brought you back here more often when I moved from a Monday-Thursday to a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule in October.
WordPress provides lots of ways to measure a post’s popularity and effectiveness. As usual, the posts that meant the most to me didn’t connect with you in measurable ways.
- A place where it means something to be a Grey – I went to Handley, West Virginia, this summer, which is the world headquarters of my family.
- My first roll of film – I shot my first roll of film in August, 1976, and got back timeless images of neighborhood children.
- Balloon Day – It was an annual tradition at my elementary school to release hundreds of balloons into the air and track where they landed. Incredibly, I have video of the event from the late 1970s.
- Even a mediocre plan will work if everybody follows it – Change is hard, but success happens when everybody decides to cooperate.
- The ear of the elephant – This was a difficult post to write. I really wanted to blast some people I know for some narrow-minded views, but instead channeled that energy into writing something I hoped would help them see that the world’s problems are multilayered and complex.
These are the five most-visited posts of 2012.
- Polaroid Big Swinger 3000 – An instant camera from the late 1960s that takes peel-apart black-and-white photos.
- Yashica Electro 35 GSN – The best-known Yashica rangefinder camera.
- No. 3A Autographic Kodak – A big, gorgeous old folding Kodak.
- How to replace the side mirror on a 2003 Toyota Matrix – I broke the side mirror off my car and fixed it myself. Here’s how I did it.
- Vintage TV: Beyond Our Control – A TV show about TV, produced by high school students in South Bend, Indiana, from the late 1960s through the mid 1980s.
I think a better measure of a post’s impact is how many comments it gathers. These are the five most-commented posts of the year.
- Rock shows – I listed all the rock concerts I’ve been to and asked you to list yours.
- No. 3A Autographic Kodak – A big, gorgeous old folding Kodak.
- Life is a highway: Down the Road turns 5 – My blog turned 5 in February, and you were happy for me. Thanks!
- Camera in hand, trying to act inconspicuous – Stories from times I was accosted while taking pictures.
- Singing to soothe my sons – I shared the songs I used to sing to my baby sons when they were upset, and it moved many of you to share the songs you sang to your little ones.
WordPress has succumbed to the “Like” phenomenon started over at Facebook. These five 2012 posts were most liked.
- Captured: Rife’s Market – A black-and-white dusk photo taken in 2012 that looks like it could have been taken in 1962.
- Captured: Basketball on the road – The road is abandoned, so why not play basketball on it?
- Argus Match-matic C3 – The Harry Potter camera returns magical images.
- Agfa Clack – A simple medium-format camera that was fun to use and returned great results.
- An evening in the front yard with a 70-year-old camera – I’ve had an old Voigtländer folding camera for a long time but only recently put film in it.
Thank you for reading Down the Road. Your visits and especially your comments encourage me to keep writing.
Most popular posts ever: about bad grammar, a folding Kodak,
a rangefinder Minolta, The CBS Late Movie, and a broken cup.
