When our kids were growing up we took lots of video movies. When they were very young we had a VHS movie camera that recorded on VHS tapes and we have watched those videos many times. From the time the kids started school through high school we had a super 8 camera that recorded on supper 8 tape. The only way to watch those tapes was to transfer them to VHS or use the camera as a player connected to our TV. About 8 years ago the camera broke and we have been unable to watch the 20 or so hours of recorded super 8 tapes made during the school years of our children. A few weeks ago we took two of the super 8 tapes to Costco to have them transferred to DVD and last night we picked up the DVD's. What an experience reliving some of those years in the past. The first DVD was of a interview of my parents in their motor home after an Oregon Football game in 1992. I wanted to record their recollections of their life before the were gone and those memories were lost. This was the second of my interviews with them and covered the period of their life from the start of World War II up to the present. My wife and the kids were present and I just had my parents talk with some promptings from the four of us. The conversation was over an hour. Well, they are both gone now so it was very emotional watching the DVD last night and I was so happy I had done it. The second DVD was taken mostly of our children's activities from April of 1997 through August of 1998. There were events recoded I had completely forgotten about. During most of this period our son was in middle school and our daughter was in high school. There are moving pictures of Medford's Pear Blossom Festival run and parade, our son's basketball and football games, track meets, birthday parties, Thanksgiving, family get together, trips to Seattle, Victoria, Crater Lake,, the Oregon coast, our daughters musical concerts, academic awards presentations and just a lot of memories. We have our daughter's returning from her Ioof UN trip to the East Coast, and her listening to the radio as a local radio station broadcast a Radio Commentary she recorded for her Speech and Debate Club while in high school. One of my favorites is a mock interview of my son wearing his Oregon Duck sweatshirt at a lonely Husky Stadium in Seattle. When we were on a trip there I took the kids by the stadium so they could see where Patrick Johnson caught that pass to beat the Huskies on their own field. One of my questions is have your seen Jim Lambright? My middle school son then spontaneously talks about the Ducks win loss recorded in Seattle. So much fun. There is an idyllic scene where my kids are swimming with their cousin at "Aunt Virginia's" pool on a hot summer day. Memories to last a lifetime!
Now, we need to transfer the other super 8 taped to DVD and when that is done transfer the VHS tapes to DVD. In a few years it may be difficult to find a VHS player.
