Faded Images, Clearer Memories

Digital Film Transfer Offers Family Insight

My Grandma Vera Newvine shot dozens of reels of Super 8 home movies. This is a frame from one of those reels. Here, she is shown with my Grandpa in footage shot by my uncle Billy. Newvine Personal Collection.

I recently had some film my grandmother shot with a Kodak Super 8 camera transferred to a digital format. Grandma would shoot home movie film at lots of family events when I was growing up the 1960s.

We always knew she was filming indoors because she would turn on a powerful light that, some might argue, nearly blinded her subjects. Outdoors, she relied on daylight for illumination, and as a result, I think the film from picnics, amusement parks, and parades captured the Newvine family along with life in the sixties at its best.

My brother and I from an early birthday party on home movie film my grandmother shot. Newvine Personal Collection.

I’m featured in some of the film. Among the highlights, there’s a birthday gathering with relatives where my brother is helping me open presents.

It was a challenge to pull freeze frames from the movies to make into prints. Grandma came from the “we’re paying by the second” school of family filmmaking, and as a result a lot of the footage is kind of shaky.

At times, it appeared she was trying to get a little bit of everything happening in the room rather than shooting one particular scene.

Here is a shot from the home movie film showing sister taking early walking steps with a little bit of help from my mother. Newvine Personal Collection.

One exception to the “spray the scene” rule my grandmother used was the time she captured her granddaughter’s attempts at walking. My sister, who at the time was the only granddaughter, is featured shortly after taking some of her first steps as an infant.

Here, the film really helps the viewer see the beauty of an infant discovering a new form of mobility.

Also featured were four male cousins who grew up on a farm. We also see two male cousins who accompanied my grandparents on day trips to amusement parks in northern New York.

My mom and dad are shown in many of the scenes from birthday parties or other family gatherings.

My dad joined in on the snowmobile craze that introduced this pastime to the otherwise brutal cold and snow-filled days of an Adirondack Region winter. Newvine Personal Collection.

The film shows a relatively new phenomenon in northern New York: the snowmobile. I recall most of my family members had at least one snowmobile.
The home movies make it clear that the snowmobile was a game changer for winter life in a region of the state that saw lots of snow from December through April.

By the time I was in high school my dad, brother, and I each had one.

My uncle Billy was usually seen in military fatigues in several columns here on MercedCountyEvents.com. But before he was drafted in the mid-sixties, he was featured prominently in my Grandma Newvine’s home movies. Newvine Personal Collection.

It was great to see my uncle Billy featured in the more than ninety minutes of film I had transferred.

My writing about Billy focused primarily on his time in the US Army where he served in Vietnam. Six months following his honorable discharge, Billy was killed in a car accident.

The film shows Billy in his late teens. We see him walking with his dad, running to first base in a family softball game, operating a small fishing boat, and engaging in horseplay with his nephews.
In other scenes, he’s trying to set up a camera on a tripod he received for Christmas, standing next to a pick-up truck (probably the first vehicle he owned), and even taking a puff on a cigarette.

The film is special in being so ordinary. Showing Billy enjoying everyday life brings a lot of comfort to me. He only lived to be twenty-three, so seeing him content makes me happy.

Grandma put away the movie camera after Billy’s death, and it would be many years before she would even play the movies for the family.

Grandma and Grandpa bought the movie camera in the early 1960s. Some twenty years later, I would extend the tradition of recording family memories by buying one of the first home video cameras that came on the market.

I remember purchasing the camera when my first daughter was born. Over the years, we recorded lots of fun times with both girls. We’ve transferred a lot of the birthday parties, Christmas mornings, family get-togethers, and school concerts onto digital media.

Someday, I hope to pull out those disks for my grandchild to look back on those happy times when his mom and aunt were growing up.

I’m sure that’s how my Grandma Newvine felt nearly six decades ago when she decided to shoot some home movies of her family.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

His latest book, Can Do Californians, is now available at Lulu.com and at BarnesAndNoble.com