Upsides to the Down Economy/ Home Movies

My grandmother, Julia Rice, died in 2001 and I inherited her house. In her garage, I discovered a treasure trove of artifacts (she never threw ANYTHING away) including a collection of 8 mm films in the classic tin film canisters. Around this time, I was in Graduate School for Screenwriting at UM and we visited the downtown Florida Moving Images Archives, on a field trip. While we were there, watching historic old movies of Miami, we were told that they provided a service to convert old films onto DVD. They kept a copy for their archives, and provided a copy for the owner of the films. Voila! I brought my box full of old films down and waited with bated breath. And waited, and waited and waited. In the meantime, I got married, changed my name and moved to a new house. Every now and then, I would think of the films and contact the Archives- a part of Miami Dade College- to remind them of the films, give them my new address, name etc... Finally, a week or so, the first film arrived and it was worth the (10 year) wait! Video of my parent's wedding, honeymoon, me coming home from the hospital, my first bath, first birthday, all were preserved in this film. Many thanks to Erin Clark at the Lynn and Louis Wolfson ll for transferring and making these wonderful memories available to me. I know now that my earliest days were surrounded by planes and cameras- making my career choices of flight attendant and screenwriter no surprise. These films, which cost nothing but persistence on my part, are truly priceless to me. I have a slice of my history, a visual memory I can share with my children, and a firm sense of how loved and adored I was by my parents and grandparents. That is surely a gift you cannot put a price on.