Growing up, one of my favorite movies of all time was Back to the Future.
The whole idea of being able to travel back in time to see places you’re interested in or even to observe times you experienced already but just want to see again is very appealing. And I won’t even start about how cool it would be to get to see the future (and of course bring back my own Grey’s Sports Almanac so I could hit it big in Vegas)
This weekend, I had a bit of a mini-time travel experience as I finally got around to a long overdue project and I transferred several of my family’s old Super 8 movie reels to digital tape. Now, for those of you that aren’t familiar with Super 8, it’s the stuff that makes VHS look like space age technology. Watching anything on those old projectors is almost like traveling back in time all by itself. It’s the old reel to reel stuff that requires a dark room and a projector that rattles with the film clicking sound that most of us aren’t quite as fond of as the 7.1 Dobly Digital Surround Sound on our BluRay HD DVDs.
Anyway, as I was watching the old footage, it was incredibly interesting, and it was a bit of a Marty McFly experience for me. First, I saw my dad back when he was an infant…
I saw him being spoon fed, saw him crawling around, and playing in his crib… the kinds of things I might have seen in pictures before, but it’s very different seeing it in motion. Seeing my grandma feeding him was a really surreal moment. I also got to see my dad in a few football games, including one at House Park, where I played a few games myself.
It was so strange to see him in a football uniform, especially looking so much like my little brother. It was also really cool to see what House Park looked like back when he played there and to know that in about another 20 years, I would be playing there too.
I also got to see myself as a baby, which was also really surreal. Again, I have seen so many pictures of myself as a baby, but seeing myself in action was cool. Below, I am just about to take my first steps…
It was amazing to see my first steps (click here to watch) especially given my current status as father who just recently watched his own daughter take her first steps just over a year ago. Talk about messing with the space-time continuum in my head.
I also saw the traumatic footage of my first make out session… which took place when I was about 9 months old, and was with my, um, cousin…
The only redeeming thing about it was that I seemed to not like it at all (this photo was taken just before I was attacked) If you watch it, you will see my reaction and be reassured, as I was. Of course, I will still be talking to a counselor about this traumatic experience that I have clearly been repressing for the last 34 years.
Now, it clearly would’ve been more fun to be able to go back in the DeLorean and to be able to really see and hear it in full living color – did I mention the projector I used was a silent movie projector? But it was still a cool trip, even though I never left my office.
Obviously, in the multiple hours worth of footage, there were several other interesting things to watch, like clips of my dad as a kid at Disney World, Six Flags, Dealy Plaza (not long after President Kennedy was assassinated, and people were still laying flowers at makeshift memorials, which was kind of weird to see on my family’s reels) on top of the Empire State Building, Christmases, a prom of some sort or another that he was taking my mom to when they were dating in high school, my parents wedding, my first year, Michael’s first year, and all these friends and relatives that I haven’t seen in many, many years. I even got to see footage of my great grandma in Brazil… lots of crazy stuff like that.
So, I guess until somebody outside of Hollywood can invent a car that can race back through time when it hits 88 miles per hour, I’ll just have to experience those bygone days of yesteryear through the magic of Super 8 movies… and I am thankful that we do at least have that.
