8mm memories

Snaptail Lake, MN (early 70s) 13 minutes

This past spring, we used our tax return to purchase an 8mm to digital converter to make the stack of old films sitting in my closet for years could be viewable once again. We purchased the Wolverine MovieMaker Pro from Amazon. It took several calls to the company to figure out why we could not get the recorder working...AT ALL. But, after the initial frustrations, we were able to transfer all of the films I have in less than a week. We still have a few flickering flops, that will need to be redone, but we have viewable family memories for the first time in decades. Yay!

There were incredibly large amounts of hunting footage on the film reels. Not surprising considering the many vivid memories I have of carcasses hanging in the rafters of our garage every autumn. What was missing, sadly, was the plastic 5 quart bucket of 8mm films we watched many Christmases, Thanksgivings and many other gatherings. The majority of the footage of my own childhood were not in my collection. 😥

I do, however, have the film of my parent's wedding back in 1948. Many reels of the older siblings. And by many, there were only a dozen reels to begin with in the box. When finished, I ended up with 61 clips. Some are a few minutes long. The longest reel held about 14 minutes of footage. Some just a few seconds. I had begun to cut to the clips into smaller pieces. Then, my daughter ended up in the hospital two months early, delivering our newest granddaughter. Born at four pounds, she spent a few weeks in the NICU. 

  

Eight months later, she is a healthy, always smiling little girl. The early delivery distracted me from editing most of the 8mm digital files. A very happy distraction.💟 It has become another 'someday' project. At least, I have the files and can view them whenever I want. 

Green Lake family reunion (1962?) just under 5 minutes

This final video I will post is from my parents wedding, filmed 74 years ago.

Greg and Shirlee wedding then 4th of July (1948) 3 minutes

The recorder/converter was more than I would have liked to spend. Looking at the prices today, it has decreased in price, naturally. After years and years of planning to send the films off to be converted, the memories are indeed priceless! I definitely do not regret finally leaping in and creating these new OLD memories for my family to share.