Debbie Family History
Preface: It was a strange night so far, and Tekel and I were wandering around his neighborhood dumpster diving. All the usual locations were hit with no apparent luck. That changed once we discovered a huge pile of discarded children’s toys, video games, DVD cases, and most importantly, VHS cassettes.
Many of the tapes were Disney flicks. Some were unlabeled. I found one that had the old Kodak label design on it, reminding me of the tapes my family dubbed our home movies on back in the early ’90s. For whatever reason, I decide to throw it into the ever-growing bin of stuff to take. It turned out to be the best find of the night, and even this entire year of dumpster diving.
On that tape was almost four hours of old home videos from what appeared to be the late 1960s all the way to the early ’90s. The label read “Debbie Family History and Frank and Belindas Weding.” The first hour and a half of footage was shot on 8 mm film, and the first hour has no audio. You can hear the camera shutter clicking on the rest. The remainder of the tape was recorded on what looked to be Hi8.
Interesting things about Debbie’s family emerged from the footage. First, they were rich. Super rich. Lots of kids, big house, big pool, nice cars, and, of course, a consumer video camera which, back then, was not a commodity. There’s even a clip showing a father and son playing one of the original Pong games, also not a cheap toy back then. Second, this family actually did stuff. There is tons of footage of park outings, family gatherings, holiday activities, etc. Also, television viewing is more prevalent in the newer footage than in the older.
Watching all of this footage inspired Tekel and I to edit it all down into a much shorter video and overlay some melodramatic music and original poetry. The main question we both asked was this: “Why would anyone want to throw this away?” This tape is a very personal look into the way one family lived 40-some years ago, something people our age rarely get to experience. Every shot, no matter how mundane the subject might have been to the person taking it, was amazing to me.
That inspired me to start taking more pictures of the average things. It’s those that define a time and a generation. Take more candids. Document generic subjects in obscure ways. Capture the things you think everyone sees, and share them with the world to provide fresh perspectives.
I think “Debbie Family History” accomplishes just that, and that’s what makes it such a special video even though neither Tekel or I actually shot it. I hope it reciprocates the same feelings the original VHS gave me when I first watched it; feelings of wonder, amazement, and curiosity of a time gone by.