… you should see the movie.

Yesterday’s post referred to refreshing one’s memory with the aid of home movies. The above image is one frame of a home movie Dad took. In his inimitable way, he double exposed the 8mm film. That wasn’t hard to do in those days. Our 8mm movie camera used a 16mm-wide spool of film. After the film was run through the camera once, exposing half of it (8mm), the operator was supposed to go to a darkened room and turn the spool over to ready the unexposed half. The lab would develop the film, split it lengthwise and return a complete 8mm film to the customer. Dad either turned it over twice or thought he turned it over but really didn’t.

The movie that resulted from Dad’s mistake is a surprisingly accurate rendition of what life was like for me growing up. Or perhaps my distorted memory coincides with my father’s aberrant way of recording every-day life.

Oh, you want to know what is going on here?  Well, Mom is making theater of smelling a flower from the garden and ceremoniously flinging it away. In the background, my brothers and I are swinging on the back yard swing set.  I could probably tell you more if I saw the movie again. Maybe one day I will…