REMINISCENCES

 

A series of essays....

EACH GENERATION RECORDS ITS
CHERISHED MEMORIES VIA CURRENT TECHNOLOGY 

....as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E Hughes

Our mission, as we chose to accept it, was to bring the boxes of video tapes upstairs from their two-year long isolation period in the basement to be played, scrutinized, and labeled. And, I know what you’re thinking—yes, we do have a VCR player, kept in good condition, just for this very purpose.

You see, we are the protectors of the bulky, Hollywood-style, VCR movie camera that all of these tapes were derived from. And, if truth be told, along the time we were starting our little family, 8mm reels originally captured the images of our celebrated life-changing events and marking time together. Most of these reels have been transferred to VHS tapes. Overwhelmed by the daunting task of modernization (transferring the VHS tapes onto DVDs), these tapes have remained ‘as is’ for years. I don’t think the iCloud is remotely prepared for all of the ‘stuff’ Baby Boomers have saved for future generations!

With our oldest daughter and family, the other portion of our ‘little bubble’ these days of pandemic and self-preservation, coming over for Thanksgiving last week, we decided to sort through miles of tapes a few weeks earlier and precisely mark what lives on each one.

It’s interesting what retirement, a major move back to Michigan, cautiously existing through Covid-19 with long spans of time to utilize, and the inevitable march forward into a new decade of life (both of us turning seventy in November)—will produce from us. Considering our recent journey back into some of the most remarkable/memorable times of our lives via long neglected VHS tapes, this adventure turned out to be one of the best trips we’ve taken in a long, long time!  

Taking the plunge into the deep, dark waters of reminiscence, we found ourselves consumed by our emotions as we wound our way through the thick sea grasses of mental impressions retained and revived. We remained in this state for nearly one week, nourishing ourselves with food and sleep as needed, and coming-up for air only long enough to label each viewed tape with its timely contents; each precious recollection a superimposed image brought to life on our flatscreen television.

Instantly, our grown children appeared as toddlers and adolescents and looking almost identical to their own children as toddlers and adolescents in real time. Even their clothing and hairstyles back then only slightly blurred the margins of time that surround our grandchildren, today. This experience was as irrational and surreal as a dream while having the disorienting, hallucinatory quality of turning the world upside down and then right side up again in a matter of moments.

I guess that’s how it should feel when you ram so many years of life and circumstances into a condensed period of time. The protective walls that surround logic and reality began to shake as innumerable visions passed through us and clouded our present from our past and projected possibilities far into the future. I don’t think we were quite ready for all of this.

The shredded pastels of birthday wrappings commingled with a thousand images of reflective Christmas papered packages bedecked with ribbon and bows being ripped open and tossed about by two adorable blond girls over the years. We rewatched important celebrations and milestones in our lives over and over again with daughters aging from birth to late teens all in the span of this one week.

With the directorial precision of Lana and Lilly Wachowski in Cloud Atlas, a philosophical take on a soul’s journey into different timelines, with each timeline being altered with certain actions of the humans it goes through, we rediscovered our family’s existence through a sci-fi take on our own innocent souls. As we observed time’s passing, Dan and I agonized over the fleeting stages of youth, but were energized by the numerous triumphs displayed by maintaining a positive family coexistence.

We sat plugging tape after tape into the black box as we ate meals and drank mugs of rich, black coffee in the comfort of our living room; one hand nourishing a different machine all while linking the past to the present.

Countless birthdays; Christmas mornings; first walks through kindergarten classroom doors and then celebrating a momentous collection of academic achievements; basketballs, golf balls, volleyballs, and tennis balls kept rhythm with parental heartbeats as they bounced across the screen; a procession of piano and guitar recitals; numerous improvised plays performed in the grand foyer of our Victorian home, all worthy of a Tony presentation; parade after parade of elaborate dance recitals; trips from tent camping in the Upper Peninsula to our condo years on Sanibel Island, Florida, to European adventures with a fourteen and an eleven-year-old, and the bright, shining faces of grandparents, aunts and uncles, and close friends, many who are long lost to us in life but will never be forgotten in our hearts and memories.

Here, I must tell of having almost lost our youngest daughter due to a ruptured appendix when she was only three-years-old. The tapes failed  to show our agony and frustration after three surgeries and nearly four weeks of hospitalization. Instead, they revealed our various degrees of joy as this tiny person began to recover and flourish once again.

Even though their ‘interest timespan’ can be one TikTok video long, our grandchildren had fun seeing  their Mom and Aunt as children about their own age. Their reactions to the past were interesting to observe.

Dan and I exceeded the patience of most people that week or these video tapes would still be buried in the dark recesses of our basement. Now that we know what we’re looking for, we can separate the family segments from old television programs and full-length movies recorded off of HBO and Showtime. Seeing their murky quality compared to HD today makes me realize that we did the best we could with what technology had to offer back then.

Just as I have been moving and filing the thousands of photos I’ve taken over the years onto USB flash drives with high gigabyte counts, I should be able to do the same with our video memories. Unharmed by surface scratches, unlike a CD, this might be the ticket to transporting them to our children and grandchildren for safe keeping.

Dan and I enjoyed our daily reminiscing parties complete with ooh’s and aah’s, some tears, soft  laughter and wonder, and oodles of heartfelt commentary. It feels good to take the time to sort out our life together after so long. Refreshing the memories of living life day-by-day opens all options going into our future. Maybe it is time to pick-out a lite-weight travel trailer built for two and decide on where to go, with whom to visit, and how long we wish to be gone. You know—the possibilities are endless!

Take good care of yourselves and others as we ride out the coronavirus. It’s important to be smart in order to stay healthy. Wear a mask for goodness sakes!

Copyright © 2020 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved