Here’s some film footage I’ll guarantee you’ve never seen before (unless you saw it on Facebook, where I posted it this morning).

My father was one of those 1950s dads who took home movies as a hobby. After his death I found myself with a large number of old 8mm reels, about which my feelings are ambivalent. In a way I’d like to look at them, but the projector is complicated to set up. And, frankly, my memory of those years isn’t the happiest.

But a while back a fellow I know offered to digitize them for me. I agreed, and presented him with a big box full (he was a bit surprised at the quantity). I figured it would take him a long time to work through them all, but surprisingly he’s got the job done now, and I’ll be picking the stuff up this weekend.

He was intrigued, as a church history buff, to see some footage Dad had taken of the centennial celebration of our home church, Hauge Lutheran of Kenyon, Minnesota, back in 1959. If you’re interested in old cars, at least, this might appeal to you. The building is the Old Stone Church, the original church building, built around 1878, as I recall. I’ve written about it here before. I’m sure I was there somewhere in that crowd, but I can’t find myself. Very likely I was standing next to Dad as he filmed. I have no recollection whatever of the day.

If you’ve read my novel Troll Valley, this church is the model for the original Nidaros Lutheran Church in the book. And the tree line you see in back is the model for Troll Valley — though in real life it’s known (for some unknown reason) as Monkey Valley.

I wondered about the white tabs on the left. My friend explained that in some of the old 8mm films, the manufacturers just punched the sprocket holes through the exposure area itself, and the left-hand side of the image was out of view when it was projected (other film brands had a black bar over there). So the ”data” on the left has actually never been seen before.

Thanks to Tim Larson for digitizing.