Reel #2 Clip #1. Tobogganing in Hopkins, 1948
I love this clip and remember that it was our favorite to watch Sara fall off the back, we would laugh it up everytime. Wonderful footage of the First Born pulling his siblings, and one cousin, Joan, back up the hill.
Reel #2 Clip #2. Bobby’s First Birthday Party, 1949
The footage is close in on the action so were not seeing much of the location, but assume it was at the cousins on 7th Avenue North in town and Aunt Bern and Uncle Jerry come to the foreground later in the clip. Our families were very close, their eldest, Wayne, was a year or two older than me and remembering looking up to him as my role model.
Bobby was Peter and Sara’s cousin/buddy, I don’t remember doing anything with him until our cousin reunion in 2001, Bobby passed away in September 2023.
Reel #2 Clip #3. Visit to Cousin Ed’s Farm, 1948
I have a strong memory of eating dinner next to Ed at the large table, who showed me how to suck the marrow from chicken bones. Ed was the son of Aunt Berni and Uncle …
Reel #2 Clip #4. Christmas at the Lake, 1948
This clip has a rich memory of place for me for Christmas Eve and Day, especially the footage of us in our import beds and our reactions to the bright lights and Dad holding the camera to his eye. Wonderful!
Reel #2 Clip #5. Homemovie Bath Trope, 1948
It dawns on me that brother Peter was the last family member to watch all footage projected on a screen which is when he made these notes. For this clip he wrote: “After a hard day on the slopes nothing feels better for those aching muscles than a hot bath with a friend.”
Reel #2 Clip #6. Warner’s Birthday Party, 1948
Dad, who I assume is on the camera, continues his steady shots of the kids’ faces, even catches a side conversation between my childhood friend, Terry and our French Canadian cousin, Mary Ann Halverson at 19 seconds in.
Reel #2 Clip #7. Picnic at the Lake, 1948
This is a second family gathering out at the lake, as we say in Minnesota, an annual event and footage shows up through out the early years, but this clip is the best. Shooting his second roll of film, Dad’s footage is steady, easy to follow, and the bonus of a cinematic bond with his one year old daughter, Sara, which will last forever.
The footage opens on the Mellema Family as the camera moves past the daughters, Sandra and Diane, to the father, George, then to his wife, Myrtle; Priscilla, Dad’s step-sister, approches with a dish for the table, then stops to do a double-take for the camera.
(Siblings, their mates, plus Karen and I visited with Priscilla in her home, out at the lake, when turning 100 was just around the corner, of which, she was proud. That was in 2001, Aunt Priscilla died in 2007.)
The footage cuts to one year-old Sara in a highchair. The child holds the camera’s gaze, looking to the right several times but returns to face her Dad with the camera.
Then a jump cut to cousin Phillip and his dad Harold. Phillip lived with cerebral palsy but it didn’t stop him from joining in playing with us. I remember our visits to Black Lake as great fun.
Leaving the Kurtzner family table, the footage holds and moves down to show Mom taking care of us at the Blake family table which includes our Grandparents A wonderful shot of his Howard is cut with one of Sara in full gaze mode.
Sara looks down at her food and the footage cuts back to Mom, then to Peter, whose gaze is still quizitive. The footage of our Grandparents, moves past Mom, down to me — then cuts to a wide shot of the family table, showing both Dad and Mom — whose on the camera?
The footage of smooth movement to the left stops at the Mellema table, with a clear shot of the daughters, note Uncle George’s chair is empty. Panning back shows Sara in her highchair as an island table, holding the center of a most unique family picnic scene.