More Home Movie Stuff

As I mentioned in my previous post, I took all of the 8 mm reels of home movies my dad had taken and converted them into digital format. 

This is the type of machine I used.  This is a picture I took off of Amazon because my brother has my machine that he borrowed a few years ago and never returned! 

Most of the movies I converted were on 3-inch reels. The machine copies the movies frame by frame. I would set it up with the original film on the left and the film would slowly move through the machine, one frame at a time winding up on the right side. Then I would have to rewind the film back to the original reel.  After that I would take the SIM card out of the machine, load it into my computer and save it into a file before erasing it to use for the next reel. 

I also had a few 8-inch reels that were too big to fit on the machine. Rich came up with this solution.

A pen taped to the top of a tissue box that was taped onto the desk. That got the reel far enough away and it was able to turn on the pen while the film was being fed through the machine! Whatever works, right?  

It was a long process that took me months and when I was done, I had 45 separate files of movies! I put them all on a USB drive. 

I had my brothers and their spouses over for drinks and dinner one night and played all the movies on our TV. It was a lot of fun to watch them all together! Plus I gave them each a USB drive with the movies so they could show them to their kids. 

It was worth all the work! 

I thought it would be fun to show you a few shots from some of those movies. The quality isn't great because I just took a picture of my computer screen. 

Me and my mom on my first communion 1965.

Easter 1960. I was three years old. My dad used to get me and my mom corsages every Easter. 

Me on my first birthday, 1958, already getting excited over cake!

This is my mom in the front walking my older brother and my Nonnie in the back walking me. My brother was 3, I was a little over a year and a half old and I don't know if you can tell but my mom was pregnant with my younger brother. 

Here she is in about 1965. 

This is me and my brothers in Mackinaw City that same year. That's my oldest brother Jim on the left, then my younger brother Tom and next to me on the other slide is my youngest brother Don. 

I love looking at these movies and remembering what it was like to be so young and carefree. I grew up in a very loving family and have wonderful memories of those years! 

Until the next time stay safe and well my friends! 

Honeymoon Then and Now

When I was growing up my dad was always filming special events and holidays on an 8 mm camera. We had about 30 little reels of film. About 4 years ago I bought a machine from Amazon and converted all of those reels into digital format and saved them on a USB drive. 

My mom and dad were married on October 16, 1954. 

For their honeymoon they drove from Michigan to Florida.  I-75 had not been built yet so I'm sure it took them several days. They made a lot of stops along the way and my dad filmed a lot of those places. 

One of their stops was at Cumberland Falls in Kentucky.  I always said that if I ever had the chance, I would go to Cumberland Falls and try to be in the same place that my mom and dad filmed. 

Driving home from South Carolina was the perfect opportunity to do just that! It was only about 15 miles off of the expressway and our timing was perfect to take a nice long break after driving for about 3 hours. 

We walked around the falls observation deck and I think we found the exact spot where they were. 

Here are a few still shots I took of my mom and dad on the observation deck. 

There are a couple different observation decks and after comparing the views to the photos I had on my phone we were pretty sure this was the one.

Here I am standing by the same pillar that my parents were on almost 68 years earlier! 

Notice the difference in the falls between their picture and ours? They were there in October so the flow of water was a lot less than it is in the spring when there is the run off from the mountains. Plus I'm sure the shape has changed a little after all those years of flowing water!

Also, here is a shot of the dedication plaque that my dad filmed. 

And a picture of what it looks like today. 

Clearly it's been redone, maybe more than once since my parents were there because it looks a lot better now! 

There are many places where my parents have been and I have been also, but there is something about being in this particular spot, where they looked so young and happy and excited about their future! I felt them very close while I was there. 

Plus the falls themselves were pretty spectacular! 

I hope to get back there again someday!

Until the next time stay safe and well my friends!

Vacation Recap and a Highlight!

Last week we went on a road trip to visit Rich's sister Judy in South Carolina. Because we can't just go straight to SC and back without doing something else fun we decided a short side trip to Tennessee was in order. 

We left Michigan at about 9 am and drove 8 hours south to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg Tennessee.  Now, I'm well aware those are tourist traps but there are a couple fun things they offer that I wanted to do. 

First of all, they are in the Great Smokey Mountains which are so beautiful you can't possibly go wrong. We only had one full day so we started it with a ride on the Smokey Mountain Alpine Coaster in Pigeon Forge.  This was something I always wanted to do and it was really fun! I didn't take any pictures though. They don't really want to you have your phone or camera on the ride. 

Then we headed into Gatlinburg because we wanted to go to Sky Lift Park. It's basically a ski lift that takes you up to the top of a mountain where there is a store, a restaurant and a bridge to walk across to another store! 

Waiting in line to get on the ski lift. See how it goes up the mountain? 

And now we are on it and I only let go of the bar in front of me to take this picture of the guy in front of us who must have been an appliance repair man! If you click to make the picture bigger you will see what I'm talking about! 

Turns out I'm still petrified of heights! Who knew? I was gripping the bar so tight my hands were sore when I got off! 

This is the view of Gatlinburg from the top. Then we got to walk across this lovely bridge to the other side where there was a building with a store (surprise!)

It's a suspension bridge that moves when you walk on it! It doesn't sway but kind of moves a little side to side. 

There was also a section in the middle that was clear. Before I took this picture there was a girl laying down right on it so she could take a picture below! 

Not me, I kept my eyes straight ahead and walked as quickly as I dared to the other side! Yep, heights are definitely not my thing! 

Luckily, we did not have to walk back across to get back to the ski lift. There was a path that wound down underneath! The we proceeded to the ski lift where I gripped the bar all the way down!

For dinner we went to an area called The Island at Pigeon Forge because I wanted to eat at the Paula Deen restaurant and also to go on the The Great Smokey Mountain Wheel. We didn't get a picture of wheel from outside. 

I honestly don't know why I kept torturing myself because this was really high! The cars were closed in but you definitely got the sense of height and when the wheel would stop and start the car would rock a little! We went around 4 times! More bar gripping for me!!

This is the view from the top so you can see how high it is! We had a great dinner at the Paula Deen restaurant and then called it a night. 

On Tuesday we headed to South Carolina with a few stops along the way. If you have never driven through The Great Smokey Mountain National Park I highly recommend it! It was absolutely beautiful!!! Here's a few pics but they do not do it justice! 

We also stopped at Whitewater Falls in North Carolina. At 411 ft. it's the tallest waterfall east of the Rockies. 

It's magnificent! Anyone who knows me knows that waterfalls are my happy place! I could have stood there all day looking at it! 

We made it to Mauldin SC just in time for dinner with my sister-in-law Judy. 

On Wednesday I had the privilege of meeting Jenny the Pirate from I'm Having A Thought Here! She drove over a hour north from where she lives to meet me for lunch! 

I suspected but now I know for sure that she is as beautiful inside as she is outside! We sat and talked for 3 hours! She mentioned in her post about our meeting that she talked a lot, and she did! But that's a good thing because I'm not a huge talker and need help to carry on a conversation! It was so nice to hear about her beautiful family that I feel like I already know from reading her blog! Her love for her family and her deep faith in the Lord shines out of her like the brightest star! 

Meeting her was truly the highlight of my trip! She is the 4th blogger I've met and I have no doubt we will meet again! Besides, I told her I may crash one of her epic parties some day! 

The rest of our time in SC was spent with my sister-in-law of course! We had lunch at Chic fil A with her daughter and grandkids and walked around Falls Park on the Reedy in downtown Greenville. Nothing crazy, just visiting and enjoying each other's company. 

Here's Rich and Judy standing on the bridge over the waterfall! 

Oh and I can't finish without showing you her dog, Mocha! She's a sweety! 

We left SC about 8:00 Friday morning with the intention on driving half way home and stopping for the night. However, neither of us wanted to spend another night in a hotel room so we drove all the way and got home at about 9:00! It was rough but I was so glad to wake up in my own bed this morning! 

On the next post I will tell you about one very special stop we made in Kentucky that I have wanted to do for a long time! 

Until the next time stay safe and well my friends! 

Here and Gone

Chris flew back to New Hampshire Thursday morning after being here for a week. We didn't do anything special while he was here. Just hung out, ate out too much and spent a lot of time with the boys. They love their Uncle Chris! 

We took them to Z@p Zone one day. 

We knew they had a talent for throwing things and they proved us right at all the games. 

Along with Space Invaders!

We went to their swimming lesson. 

That's Levi on the left side third from the right and Maxwell on the right. They are getting really good!

The night before he left, we took pizza and salad over to Shauna and Brad's and did something I have been wanting to do for a while. 

Took a family picture! And acted like our goofy selves! 

It was so nice having him here! He will be back in May for his birthday, hopefully!

Next weekend we are heading on a road trip to Tennessee for a few days and then to South Carolina to visit with my sister-in-law Judy. I love road trips! 

Until the next time stay safe and well, my friends!