…the answer is “ADORBS”. Unfortunately, it’s all downhill from there.
I uploaded a test clip of a short 8mm film recording, with some minimal processing to make it presentable (little tweaks of the white balance, contrast, a tiny bit of smoothing, etc.) If you have suggestions about how I can clean it up further, let me know.
This is Christmas Eve, 1960. You all remember it well, I’m sure.
This is great stuff. Little PZ wearing a red sweater portends growing up into a focus of evilutionism. The Christmas aspect becomes the first salvo in War on Christmas 2024. I too have an Uncle Ed!
You are about the same age, a few months removed, from my oldest half-brother I didn’t know growing up because reasons. My grandma snuck a pic through snail mail and my curiosity was piqued. I would meet him about a decade ago. I have that and a few other pics of him, my sister, and other brother. The obit of that brother gave me enough info to find the other two sibs after my dad passed.
I have video of my mom at a family reunion I didn’t attend sometime in the 90s but no other family videos. Plenty of photos I should look through again to bring back memories.
My mom and dad took me to visit relatives outside Boston numerous times. I saw my first memorable snow on one of those trips. I might have a pic of my poor attempt at a snowperson made at my paternal grandmas house. She sent me photos of a horrific blizzard that hit in the mid to late 70s around Boston. She was in Westborough.
Of course I remember Christmas Eve in 1960!
It had been an eventful 6 months for me, starting with my conception in some kind of tubular thingy, travelling down it while growing, landing and burrowing into this strange, sticky wall, which engulfed me, then gradually began to nourish me!
I continued to grow and strange appendages began to grow out of me. It was a pleasure when I found I could put an appendage of an appendage into a hole in my head.
Wait a minute! When did I grow a head? And when did a hole appear in it?
Wow! It’s fun to thrash these appendages against the walls of my world!
About 3 months later, which I now know was late March in 1961, my world started squeezing me – pushing me down this other tube I didn’t know was there! And when I got to the end of THAT tube, my world changed completely!
1960 would have been a big family Christmas for 9 year old me too. It started with a 400 mile or so drive to my grandparents. This was down what was called a highway. It was mostly dirt and gravel so we arrived very dusty. My grandparents home was a former police station so the routine was to send all the kids to the back of the house where the cells used to be while the adults spent most of the season till New Years drinking . Typically the men in the dining room and the women in the lounge room. The large keg would be dry in a few hours and then it was on to the bottles which gradually filled the back of my father’s pick up when they were empty. My grandmother would be in the kitchen cooking a couple of legs of lamb for a very extended family. n arrival each child would be given a farthing to go to the corner store to buy a lolly. Licorice blocks were 4 a penny so they were my favourite. Not sure if it was that year but New Years celebrations were similarly busy and one year while the adults were drinking in the New Year we kids stole the empty beer keg, rolled it up the hill and were rolling it down the main street singing “Roll out the Barrel” when the police came along. We were all ordered into the back of the Paddy Wagon and delivered home to our rather inebriated and embarrassed parents.
I like the console television in the Westad house.
It was B&W. I didn’t see a color TV until about 1965, when my great grandma Berg got one. We used to go to her house just to watch Flipper — there was actual blue on the screen!
I was born in ’61. My parents didn’t have a TV at all until I was 9 or 10. Went to the grandparents to watch Star Trek in color. : )
first time i saw flipper in rerun, it was a black & white, during the 80s. gotta have ol cheap junk.
there are a few of channels on youtube that do ai upscaling and color, and speed correction on old films. there are issues with it, but the result is a more life-like look at older times in history. Very cool to see.
there’s one of random scenes from an oddball western europe country like denmark or nl, i forget, from before wwii. to me your film looks like a natural point partway between then and now (closer to then). seeing that aesthetic change in everything, bit by bit. interesting.
If visitors are featured in home movies, you may have to ask members of the old generation who they were, while there are still people around to ask.
Likewise, please go through old photo albums and write down details about the names, and in which context the photos were taken.
It is too late for me, my aunts and uncles have all passed away.
I definitely expected a little beard and glasses.
1960 was a great year. Especially April 28th, when Justice Helena Kagan, Scottish Author Ian Rankin, and I were born.
I’m a professional photo restorer, so a bit more important than those other two.
Tips:
For photography, scan them at at least 1200 dpi. In color. Evern black and white photos should be scanned in color because any color stains can be easily filtered ot.
Save your scanned files on multiple drives and on multiple cloud storage sites. Give copies and links to all of your family members.
For quick color correction of color photos, I’ve found nothing better than the app they run at myheritage dot com. It does amazing things.
For colorization, forget it. That app works well on grass and trees and water, but is absolute asss when it comes to other things. For that you will need to hire a professional, like me.
General tip: If you want quick and easy, your results will be less good than long and hard.
Chris Whitehouse @10
I’ve found scanning or even photocopying B&W photos in color results in much better outcomes. I don’t know why technically speaking. Better shading or hues?
I was 3 months in being a feotus at that time. My memory of that moment is a little fuzzy.