bob left behind 8mm reels
and my dad boxed with big boppers!
Technology changes are exhausting eh?
How do you keep up with the family archives?
My grandfather Bob was pretty high tech back in his day.
Even in the 1950’s he had a Keystone Olympic 8mm film camera. For the longest time we had tins of film stashed in the basement.
In the 1980’s my dad had this transferred to Betamax. Given that Betamax was a major consumer flop, it was considered a poor choice given the dominance of VHS tapes.
But VHS tapes? They didn’t last either. Luckily though, the old film was transferred from Beta to VHS.
I’m not sure that the images ever made the journey from VHS to DVD. I do know one thing - you won’t find those moving images on Youboob or Wuhanchat.
I watched them once.
I saw silent films of two young boys who looked a lot alike - my dad and his twin brother. They were wearing big, puffy boxing gloves - big boppers - according to my dad.
They were surrounded by men in old fashioned clothes.
Hell, everything I saw seemed old fashioned and blurry.
But I guess memories get like that after a few decades eh?
In the film, the two boys were fighting with each other. The taller thin one - my dad - kept knocking down the shorter squat looking one - his brother.
People seemed to be laughing and gesticulating.
In retrospect, it was a lot like watching an old Charlie Chaplin film. There was no sound and the timing seemed a bit weird.
As it turns out, the cabbies used to get my dad and his twin brother to box and place bets on who would win.
The big bopper boxing gloves likely helped prevent bruising.
Now some might consider this to be an issue.
In reality?
It looked like a lot of fun.
And it didn’t seem to impact my dad and his brothers love for each other.
My dad didn’t get a room to himself until he became a captain with the fire department seventeen years into his career. When he lived at home, he shared a room with his brother. When he moved out, he shared a room with my mom.
But as a twin, his complaints went further - Own room? Hell, I didn’t have my own womb!
Things were different back then.
Homes were smaller.
Family members had less privacy.
And?
If they could tolerate each other, people stayed closer together.
But?
How do you capture this with a tickety talk?
How do you share this with an instagrasim?
In the end, the film eventually crumbles, the photo albums disappear.
The images we capture and images we cling to are as fleeting as the sand.
How do you keep up with all of the memories, trophies and mementos of a life well lived?
More importantly, how do you find joy in watching it all slip away like the sun at the end of a particularly beautiful summer day?