Speaking of Movies...

God gave us memories that we might have roses in December.
J.M. Barrie

When we were kids, Daddy would take home movies of us for all occasions: Christmas, birthdays, Communions, Confirmations, graduations, vacations, whatever came along in our lives that he felt needed documentation. These were days of 8mm cameras, and the developed films were on small reels. At some point, Grandpa had helped him slice a few small reels together into larger ones, but mostly they were all these short movies that would only run a few minutes.

If we begged and cajoled him on a Sunday night, we could get Daddy to set up the huge old movie projector in the living room. He had a collapsible screen that would be at one end of the room, Dad and the projector at the other end, movies piled high next to him. We would all be squirming and fooling around until a movie came on the screen. We would laugh and talk and make jokes. As quickly as they came on, the movies were over, and Daddy would have to rewind the film, and load another into the projector. He would do this over and over and over, until Mom would finally tell us it was time for bed. It seemed like we could never get enough, and we always pleaded (in vain) for "just one more".

We are blessed to have had such a patient, loving father who would readily sacrifice himself and his own comfort to amuse and entertain his children.