History

I was going through some of my dad's old movies tonight. It is so, um, surreal maybe is the right word, to see his handwriting and look at some of the things he filmed. There are notes on most of the reels that say funny thinks like "Pole Climbers" and "Katie walking into Trailer" or "Rob with sucker". Some are funny, like "Brad sticking out tongue" or "Brad teasing Katie", and some are serious like "Grandpa Cole's Funeral". Then there is a historic one that says, "Kennedy at Fairgrounds" which gives me the chills just reading it and typing it. They start in 1954 and go up to 1979. There are even two reels of film that are empty. I would love to see if there was a way I could film the girls on those, but I have no idea if anybody would even be able to develop those. Some of the films are in tin canisters labeled either Wards orKasper's Photo Shop. Most of them are in small boxes, about 3" by 3", with postmarks from Chicago, New York or Hollywood, California.

If you think about it, there might only be one major historic film included in this box of memories, but in a way all of it is history. It's all the history of my family, seen mostly through my father's eyes, which makes it all that much more valuable to me.