Home movies

When my mother passed away a few years ago and we were cleaning out my parent's house, we found their old home movies and projector.  Several of the more recent movies had been transferred to DVDs, but there was still a box of the small reels and Super 8 reels.  I brought them home and put them away thinking one day soon I would transfer them. 


One day turned into 3 years and yesterday Eric and I spent the day watching old home movies.  Some of the movies had been spliced together and were labeled.  Some were just on a reel and it took watching them a few times to finally realize what it was. 


As we sat in our darkened den with no sound except the clicking of the projector, we were taken back many years.  There were vacations, Christmas and Easter films, reunions, weddings and other times.  When we would see one of my cousins at a young age Eric would ask "now who is that?  Wow, she looks just like your aunt."  Other times the comments ranged from "your niece looks more like you than your sister" to "you can never tell what year it is because your dad looked the same all the time." 


One part was my sister's 8th grade dance.  I asked my sister who had made the film and my mother had gone that night to the school.  It was 1962 and hearing that my mom made a movie of everyone made me suddenly feel very rich.  I had seen these home movies before and knew we had a camera in the early 60s.  But now I wondered what my parents had sacrificed to be able to purchase what must have been an extravagant expense. 


I am sure if my parents were here and I could ask what made them buy a camera when surely there were other things that were needed more, they would tell me that they wanted those memories to be here long after they were gone. 


The projector and screen are still set up in our den.  We will finish watching the stack of old movies tonight and have our list to be transferred this weekend.  And I hope if my mom and dad can see us, they will know how much my sister, brother and I appreciate them looking into the future so that we could look into the past.