There's something I keep forgetting to do at home, and I have to correct that sooner rather than later.

Photography runs thick on both sides of my family. On my mom's side, my great-grandfather, and subsequently my grandmother, ran Mercer Studios in downtown Owensboro. It was above where The Pub and Don Mario's are now.

My DAD never went anywhere outside of Daviess County without his camera. And on quite a few occasions, he never did anything or went anywhere INSIDE Daviess County without one, either. That includes his old movie camera.

You see, I have a lot of his old reel-to-reel home movies, and I don't know what to do with them. I know there are businesses that transfer things like that onto DVD or into digital form, but the movies in question are so delicate, that I'm afraid they'd disintegrate if I looked at them the wrong way.

I'll have to figure SOMETHING out, but until then, I can enjoy old home movies I've found on YouTube like this one:

I see the old Blue Bridge (it wasn't blue back then) and I'm immediately reminded of one of my dad's movies. Several years ago, he got footage of crews pulling a new--at the time--Cadillac out of the river. There was no sound on those old reel-to-reels, which kind of made it even creepier. It was also in color, like this cool old 8mm film from 1956.

Good grief, that brings back memories.

Who remembers sitting in church anywhere north of 18th street trying to hear the preacher on a Sunday morning while the regatta was happening downtown?

How about a performance from the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra, circa 1979?

Check this one out. You might recognize some faces, even if this is from almost 30 years ago:

And who could forget THIS broadcast? Just LOOK at a 22-years-younger Wayne Hart.

I'll never forget how, among other things, the tornado changed the entire look of Rose Hill and Elmwood Cemeteries, but particularly Rose Hill. I remember noticing the absence of trees that had been standing on that hill, and I guess they never occurred to me until they were gone.

There's nothing like a fun shot of nostalgia ANY day of the week. I hope you've enjoyed it.