May 13th, 2008 by john 
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For years I have been harassed by my family for always having that !#%! camcorder with me where ever I go. When I show up, family members begin ducking for cover. My Grandmother, bless her heart, usually starts with “Oh no, not that thing again! Go take some pictures of the young people. You don’t want pictures of this old lady.” Well actually, yes I do. That’s exactly what I want. I have been documenting our family with the camcorder since 1995. Just about every birthday party, holiday and get together is stored on dozens of tapes, hundreds of hours of video.
I am known as the family documentarian, is that a word? I show up at every function with a camera strapped around my neck and my camcorder hanging from my shoulder. I look like a tourist that just stepped off the tour bus. Everyone loves to make fun of me and my cameras. Everyone except my nephews. You see, they know I have hours of video of the family. Hours and hours of all of our funny family moments. Every time they come over, I get a request to watch the family movies. Mothers Day was no exception.
After we polished off our huge buffet style brunch, everyone gathered in our den, at my nephews request and we watched several of our family movies. We started with the video of our 2001 multi-generation beach house vacation that I told you about in Plan Your Next Family Get Together Now! My nephews are especially fond of this one for several reasons. One, they can’t believe how young everyone looks, including themselves. Also, we had my dog Sandy, my Grandparents dog Blitz and my Sisters dog Sheyman with us. All three of which have since passed away. The kids loved all of these dogs. Another highlight was seeing my Grandfather. He passed away in 2003. We all loved him dearly. This was the last vacation we took together before he died.
Every time we get together and watch these movies it inspires all kinds of conversations. Do you remember that. Remember when you….I can’t believe you… and on and on. One thing became very evident on Sunday, despite all of the complaining and humorous criticism about my camcorder, everyone is grateful that we have documented so many of our family events. It allows us to relive precious moments and visit with those no longer with us. At times we were laughing so loud we could no longer hear the video. At other times we were almost in tears.
I think that video taping family gatherings is a great way to document your family. It will serve as a reminder years from now, how things were back in the year whatever. I still take my camcorder everywhere I go. I recorded our gathering in front of the TV watching the old videos!
The last video we watched was our family vacation to Pennsylvania. We started off at Gettysburg, visited Amish country in Lancaster, then on to Philly and finally stopping at the Baltimore Aquarium on the way home. While viewing this video on Sunday, we came across some scenes that we had completely forgotten about. Everyone was cracking up, so I decided to edit together some of the scenes from Lancaster and make a short clip. This is my first attempt at making a video.
We have a long standing tradition of finding unique stores on our trips. We pick out hats, wigs, costumes, sun glasses, toy guns, you name it and adorn ourselves with them and make a general spectacle of the B-Family. Yes we make fools of ourselves, but we have had an awesome time doing it! The first few times I did it the kids were embarrassed. I told them “Hey we’re never going to see these people again.”, they loosened up and we have had a blast ever since! Yes my family’s a little weird. Is your family just a little weird? Trust me, it’s OK!
So sit back and take a minute to watch our video. Try and forget about my bad haircut and super casual attire. At the time I had to wear a shirt and tie everyday so I let it go on vacation. BTW, I got the House of Blues T-shirt on a business trip to New Orleans during Mardi Gras in ‘96. We saw a Metallica cover band, that rocked old school circa ‘83 with songs like Whiplash and Seek and Destroy. Ultra cool! Oooops, I am getting way sidetracked…..enjoy the video. Oh and make sure your sound is turned up!
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My name is John.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I think it is a great idea and wish we did it more. I always seem to forget to charge it or the tape is full. This inspires me to get going with the video camera!
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John reply on May 15th, 2008 6:39 am:
Heidi – I used to forget to charge and bring tapes as well. I now have a pack pack with all the accessories. Actually, I forgot to charge the darn thing on Mothers Day. I just plugged it in and charged while I was cooking breakfast! I guess I am addicted!
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We had an old video camera, you know the kind that’s bigger than a bread box, lol. We just got with the 21st century and purchased a dvd Canon camcorder, before we went to Disney World, so we plan on using it a lot more too! My husband is the recorder too. I laugh when you say your Grandmother doesn’t want to be tapped that’s my Mother! She covers her face and hates when she is taped or even if her picture is taken! We’ll have to tape her when she’s not looking!
Thanks for stopping by mine earlier, John & your comments. Have a good weekend!
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Sue, Canon DVD camcorder, ahhhh, I’m envious! I do have a digital, but it uses tapes. You know, it’s funny, my Grandmother complains every time I pull the camcorder out, but she was very thankful last weekend and told me that it was great that I have been doing this for years! Thanks for all your support and feedback to my posts! It is really appreciated!
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Carry on recording. I wish I had done so twenty years ago when the kids were small. Ten, twenty years from now all of us will be sitting back in our rocking chairs, trying desperately to remember what it was we said or did today. And there’s no way we can record unerasable memories in our minds. How good it is to re-live old memories, made sweeter by the passing years…..
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John reply on May 22nd, 2008 2:33 am:
kopiching – I started recording everything for just that reason. Great point!
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