Nostalgia is defined as "a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life, to one's home or homeland, or to one's family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time."
I have already owned here to being a pack rat from a line of pack rats who can get maudlin over old telephone numbers. So getting family 16 mm home movies transferred to DVD is a no brainer for me. I’ve got seven inch reels of film. Many American families following WWII engaged in various methods of preserving the growth of children and family fun either in 8 or 16 mm movies or 35 mm slides.
When my father died in 2002 my step-mother gave me the twelve cans of 1950s film. I took them to Ritz here in Gig Harbor, but there was one thing I wanted that they couldn’t do. Back in the 1980s I’d had two reels of home movies put on VHS and they’d included a geeky sound track. My oldest son came up with the idea of having the sound track be the sound of an old 16 mm projector. I loved the idea. To be able to sit and watch those old movies and hear the sound of the projector would be divine. Talk about memory lane. So the cans went back into the box and my husband stowed them next to my armoire in the bedroom for six years. He would like to have put them in the garage, but I wouldn’t let him.
Last night the bug bit me again and I started snooping around the Internet trying to find someone who could do what I want. I emailed the first site I visited and came up empty handed. Over dinner I told my husband that I wasn’t going to give up so I started emailing other likely looking website and got someone who actually sounds excited about what I want.
So now I’m waiting for the damage estimate, but I’ve decided that it’s not going to get any cheaper so I will bite the bullet and do it. I will keep the Neighborhood posted on my success. I’m sure there are other Baby Boomers out there with home movies that are deteriorating as I write. If you’ve got those slides or home movies sitting in a closet, consider getting them put on DVD before they disintegrate.
Film at eleven.
