Have you ever seen old films of yourself as a toddler or even as a newborn? Well, for Christmas I received a dvd created by my dad that was made up of 30-year-old footage from his old Super 8 camera. I guess the technology to transfer film to dvd has become more common since my days in film class in college. The good thing is that the films have not lost their beautiful, gritty graininess, a trait of old home movies that video could only hope to replicate.
The first part of the movie is of Christmas time 1977, when my mom was very young and very pregnant with me. My late Grandma Betty (known as Grandmama to her grandkids) was decorating a Christmas tree with my mom and dad. My dad was making goofy faces, something he has always done. They didn't have a tripod so the camera got passed between Mom and Dad so everyone got a chance to be on film. There is also footage of my parents shoveling snow into their little blue pick-up on the side of a road, some place where it had snowed a lot. And then it goes to my dad's parents' house, where the Christmas tree, complete with running train and wind-up monkey crashing cymbals, was decorated to the hilt and the room overflowed with presents wrapped in oldtime-y paper, lustrous ribbons and festive bells.
Watching my newborn self flail my lanky arms about was surreal. I wondered what I was thinking. Being that I was the first born of my dad's three kids, little me is in the rest of the movie, growing up, getting a little sister and then a little brother. The movie stops when I am about 3 years old.
Thanks, Dad, for the most thoughtful gift I've ever received! I am treasuring it.
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6 comments:
I read this blog the other night. Late at night. I didn't comment on it because I think it was the last thing I looked at before I closed my eyes and fell asleep.
What an awesome gift to receive!Perhaps you can upload them to Youtube and link us to them?
Aww, I bored you to sleep! Hahahaaa...
I am thinking about uploading them to share but I'm leaning towards NOT doing that as they are something really special that I'm not sure I want to share with the world. If I decide to upload them, I'd ask my dad first. But I'd definitely show them to house guests.
I understand. I felt the same way about my super 8s. I uploaded only clips.
yeah that video was pretty cool to watch, but pretty sad to see how happy you all were for that short time, and then everything was lost. I kept involuntarily thinking, "oh- i'm coming up next" without realizing that i probably wasn't lol. But your dad did a great job putting it together and their videos seem so fitting for commercials--really the epitome of a young 70's family. susan mom and john enjoyed watching it as well. I will be sure to keep all my video/photos from here on out to give to my kids.
Sam, I felt the same thing you did: seeing such a happy family and knowing it just stopped, ended. Sad.
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