Home Videos

This week I am working on copying our family VHS videos to DVDs. It is fun going back in time while working with these videos. We have lots of family photos and pictures of Hattie and Brion growing up, but to look back and see them move and hear their voices is sheer joy. At the same time it makes me feel a little melancholy. It seems that there is so little that I remember when I look back over the years. I feel like I went through a good portion of my life in a coma. So, although we didn't take a lot of videos, the ones we have will forever be cherished.

We purchased our first video camera in 1989. I think it was a Panasonic and it was a big camera. Later they started making smaller cameras and we bought a Sony Digital 8 camera. The first camera recorded right onto a VHS tape that could be played in your VHS box. The second camera recorded on smaller tapes. After recording on the small tape you would plug video cables into the back of your VHS and upload the video to a VHS tape. We didn't do any editing to our tapes, so I am trying to edit them a little now.

Brion and Teddy

After looking at some of the videos it is obvious that we weren't the best videographers. Quite a few times one of us would be recording at one location and we'd decide to move to another location. Sometimes we forgot to turn off the camera when we moved. We have some great videos of our feet. Once Duck put the video camera into the case and left it turned on. Although the video is entirely black, the audio is quite interesting. Then there are the times that the kids wanted to help record video. It is highly recommended that one take anti-nausea medicine before viewing those videos.

This project is going to take a little while to complete, not to mention the emotional turmoil it is creating, but forge ahead I will. The end result will be worth more than words can express.