I wanted to share the photos, letters & more that my mother left behind.
HERE'S THE LONG VERSION:
As a child of the 50's, one of the excellent ways we were entertained was with home movies. I loved them. The extended family that surrounded me as I grew up centered around my grandparents, Pablo and Guadalupe Ramirez. I’m not sure exactly who bought the 8mm movie camera but the movie viewings were always at Grandma’s house. The screen was unfurled and wrestled into position at one end of the room while the film was being meticulously threaded through the mysterious ins and outs of the projector at the other end. Whether we were watching scenes of my brother, cousins, aunts and uncles playing in the snow that fell in Rancho Sespe in the winter of 1948/49, an old Mickey Mouse cartoon or a dramatic flame that would sometimes devour the film as we moaned, the sheer pleasure was immeasurable.
The loose-sided cardboard box that held the round metal film canisters was routinely stored at my grandparent’s house. Through the years, as teens became young adults and moved away, the family began the custom of gathering at Grandma’s house every Sunday. Often enough someone would suggest that we watch movies. After my grandmother died in 1963 the call to gather grew weaker and weaker. Somehow the box and projector began to migrate, sometimes ending up at Tia Rachel’s house then at Uncle Gilbert’s then finally at my mom’s. In 1979 when Rancho Sespe was sold to an owner who would soon mechanize, my parents downsized in order to move in with my brother, Adrian, who lived “in town,” Fillmore. It was soon after that that the box disappeared.
Today, May 26, 2010, it’s been 30 or so years since those movies have been seen. It’s hard to imagine that they’re still in viewing condition.
I’m now in possession of photos, letters and documents that I retrieved from my mother’s belongings at the time of her passing in November 2006. I don’t want them to have the same fate as the home movies we all loved.
This is why I’ve decided to create a blog. Rather than store this material away in a box to be forgotten or lost, I’m going to post as much as I can as well as record memories, thoughts and impressions. I also intend to invite friends and family members to comment, correct and add to whatever I post.
Instead of gathering in front of a movie screen as it swayed slightly on its wobbly tripod stand, our family, now extended across the state of California and beyond, can gather before a monitor to experience a connection to those who came before us.
Sandi Davis Gunderson, first-born daughter of Carmen
