Ghosts on VHS
Part of the reason that my posts have been sparse lately is that I'm working on another project. Last weekend, we went to my parents' house for my grandmother's birthday. While we were there, I dug up a couple boxes of VHS tapes (old home movies.) Most of the tapes are of my brother's track races. There are also quite a few of my high school cross country and track races, a couple of my sister's swim meets, assorted piano recitals that my bro and sis did, our wedding video, and a few miscellaneous family events and gatherings. My goal is to get all of them converted and copied onto DVD.
As would be expected, there are a lot of things on these tapes that I'd forgotten about in the last 20 years. I've seen footage of my great uncle who died in 1989, my grandpa and my uncle who both passed away a couple of years ago, and a lot of footage of my brother growing up. There was footage of my friend Leshelle running hurdles. She was killed in a wreck in 1991. It's been interesting - alternately entertaining and very sad.
I'd forgotten how my brother intentionally mispronounced my sister's name for several years. I'd forgotten about how my uncle kept grabbing our brand-new video camera and surreptitiously filming his wife's ass. I'd forgotten about how another one of my poor doddering, senile great uncles had spent a good part of our wedding reception seeking out young women to hug. I'd forgotten about the piano recital where my eight-year-old brother finished his piece, stood up, took a bow, noticed his shoe was untied, tied his shoe right there onstage, then bowed again.
I'd also forgotten about how much my lack of competetive nature frustrated my parents. I'd never really gotten the impression at the time, but they had a tendency to be plenty critical of me. During a lot of my high school races, they can be heard on the camera: "He's not running very well, is he?" "Why doesn't he pick it up?" "He's just not doing ANYTHING." I'll admit that I probably could have pushed myself harder quite a bit of the time, but I never cared to. But, in my defense, during at least one of those races I remember getting blisters on my feet that covered nearly the entire sole of my right foot. Bad shoes, or something. I suppose that in order to be among the best, one has to have a special sort of drive that I fundamentally lack. That being said, what percentage of us can say we've run a half-mile in less than 2 minutes? A mile in 4:46? I've done both. So there.
I also copied the race where my brother broke the high school record for the mile run. That's the one I really wanted to preserve, as I fear the VHS tapes won't last forever. Perhaps I'll Youtube it.
As would be expected, there are a lot of things on these tapes that I'd forgotten about in the last 20 years. I've seen footage of my great uncle who died in 1989, my grandpa and my uncle who both passed away a couple of years ago, and a lot of footage of my brother growing up. There was footage of my friend Leshelle running hurdles. She was killed in a wreck in 1991. It's been interesting - alternately entertaining and very sad.
I'd forgotten how my brother intentionally mispronounced my sister's name for several years. I'd forgotten about how my uncle kept grabbing our brand-new video camera and surreptitiously filming his wife's ass. I'd forgotten about how another one of my poor doddering, senile great uncles had spent a good part of our wedding reception seeking out young women to hug. I'd forgotten about the piano recital where my eight-year-old brother finished his piece, stood up, took a bow, noticed his shoe was untied, tied his shoe right there onstage, then bowed again.
I'd also forgotten about how much my lack of competetive nature frustrated my parents. I'd never really gotten the impression at the time, but they had a tendency to be plenty critical of me. During a lot of my high school races, they can be heard on the camera: "He's not running very well, is he?" "Why doesn't he pick it up?" "He's just not doing ANYTHING." I'll admit that I probably could have pushed myself harder quite a bit of the time, but I never cared to. But, in my defense, during at least one of those races I remember getting blisters on my feet that covered nearly the entire sole of my right foot. Bad shoes, or something. I suppose that in order to be among the best, one has to have a special sort of drive that I fundamentally lack. That being said, what percentage of us can say we've run a half-mile in less than 2 minutes? A mile in 4:46? I've done both. So there.
I also copied the race where my brother broke the high school record for the mile run. That's the one I really wanted to preserve, as I fear the VHS tapes won't last forever. Perhaps I'll Youtube it.
posted by ptooey at
7:46 AM
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