Tale of the gum ball...

One of my first jobs in the 'industry' was hand processing black and white film. A dirty smelling job involving many hours in the pitch black sloshing around chemicals and thinking of days in the sunshine running through corn fields hand in hand with some pretty girl (it was all you could do to keep you from going insane). Many times I would revert back to my choir singing days and belt out a few songs, always with the danger of stop bath splashing into my mouth and burning my precious tonsils.
Back in the day it was not uncommon for a lot of photographers to shoot 10/8 black and white sheet film and on this particular day one of the worlds most famous was shooting in the UK and needed his film extra quick (don't they always). I am mentioning no names for obvious reasons but here is a clue.
I loaded the sheet film into the stainless steel racks (in the dark of course) and proceeded with my usual method of lowering the rack into the tank of liquid developer. Before entering the cave of darkness I had shoveled several pieces of gum into my mouth to try and stop the chemical fumes leaving a nasty after taste as they would normally do (not the safest job in the world, and no I do not have three testicals).
I started to agitate the film and It wasn't long until I broke into song, it also wasn't long until the gum ball in my mouth fell out mid chorus and into the developing tank wedging its self in between the sheets of precious film... I often think back to that day and wonder what would of happened if I had continued the process and only sacrificed two sheets of film instead of pulling that light cord. Anyway, I found the piece of gum, but I never put it back in my mouth....I'm not that stupid....