Tuesday, April 19, 2022

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!

18 comments:

  1. What a cool thing to do! My parents honeymooned in the Poconos, which is a place I highly doubt I’ll ever go! Lol!

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  2. Oh how wonderful!! Wish my folks had trip photos like this...I would have done the same as you!
    hughugs
    Donna

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  3. Oh Jeanette, what a wonderful WONDERFUL post... and poignant stop you two made!!! I'm so glad you did this.. and shared it with the rest of us too! Thank you for that. ~Andrea xoxo

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  4. I love that you did this; what a fun and sweet thing to do and recreate. I'm sure you felt the love between the two of them, overflowing like a waterfall. XO

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  5. What a wonderful and strange experience! I bet you had so many mixed emotions. I am so glad you got to do this!! Wow, you are a technical expert, transferring all those videos!!!

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  6. What a wonderful story to read Jeanette! I think it is neat how you converted the old movies. I bet that is a treasure in itself. Glad you visited the Falls and recreated shots your parents would have done. I think it is a great thing to be able to have for your kids and your grandchildren.

    Betty

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  7. What wonderful memories you have made.

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  8. Everything in this post is wonderful!

    *You had the old films converted.
    *What a beautiful bride your Mother was.
    *How happy she looked by the Falls.
    *Sweet to replicate the picture spot.

    Just delightful, all........

    Gentle hugs
    πŸŒΌπŸ‹πŸŒΌπŸ‹πŸŒΌπŸ‹πŸŒΌ

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  9. How awesome that you were able to visit that same spot.

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  10. I can only imagine how you felt being there in the same spot. What a nice trip that was.

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  11. That is so cool, thank you for sharing. Hoping you have a beautiful day. smiles

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  12. Oh my goodness Jeanette! This is is so wonderful! I can imagine the sense of feeling your parents' nearness, being in the same spot where they documented being so young and in love and happy and hopeful. What a blessing that must have been. A few years ago when we were in Chicago, TG took me to the very place where my mother and sister and I posed for Easter pictures on Sunday, March 29, 1964, in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago. There had been a snowstorm on that Easter, and Mama and Kay and I were all bundled up against the weather. It was incredible to me, to stand on the sidewalk precisely where my mother had stood smiling at me and Kay, on that long-ago day. That picture is in the sidebar of my blog. Another, similar story: When TG and I toured Fenway Park in 2019 on our New England trip, the tour guide pointed out a large block of seats that are completely original to the park. He said that people will come with old faded tickets and say, in one example, can you show us the general vicinity of the seats where our grandparents sat on the night our grandfather proposed to our grandmother during the Red Sox game? And in this one particular case they were shown not just to the general vicinity, but to the VERY SEATS that their grandparents sat in on that occasion. Isn't that amazing? I think that would make me feel a definite connection to the past. Which is always a good thing, when love is involved. xoxo

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  13. That is really cool, Jeanette. Glad you got to recreate and thanks for sharing. Hope you had a great trip. Take care.

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  14. I love this! First, it's great you got their wedding videos digitalized. And then to see the spots they were at is just so special!

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  15. What a treasure it is for you have these videos.
    My dad took quite a few of the those movies too when I was growing up. We made our own VHS tape of them by showing the movies on the screen and then taking a movie of it. Was great by now we don't have a machine to play it on.

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  16. Oh wow, how cool is this!! Having a video camera back in the day was a rare thing, so what a neat treasure to have those recordings. How sweet that you found the exact spot your parents were.

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  17. That is so awesome. What a treasure.

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