Lynette & Dave's wedding (Jan 1997)

I found an old video tape this weekend which turned out to have lots of film from our wedding. It was fun looking back nearly 14 years later - we'd forgotten a lot of what happened on the day. These are the highlights, uploading for posterity's sake and to make it easier to share with those who were there.

A tour of Aunt Marion's house

My brother Pete hasn't yet made it over to the UK, and so has never visited Aunt Marion. So he can see what he's missing, Aunt Marion and I gave him the house tour...

But, because it's going through her house, I decided to err on the side of caution and make it password protected. So, if you know me and want to see it, send me an email. :-)

Aunt Marion reminisces

Often when we visit Aunty Marion she talks about things that happened when she was younger. This trip I decided I would video some of it as thought Mum (who is very interested in researching family history) would find it entertaining. It was filmed over dinner at the Red Lion pub in Freshwater.



In order, Aunt Marion talks about the following (with start times in brackets):

• Her garden at the Ilford House (10 secs)
• Talking about trains (1 min, 30 secs)
• Meeting her first husband Nick in Torquay (2 min, 10 secs)
• How Nick was like Uncle Jim (3 min)
• Uncle Jim in India during the war (3 min, 20 secs)
• What Uncle Jim did after the war (6 min, 10 secs)
• Meeting Uncle Jim when she was aged 16 (7 min, 50 secs)
• Travelling and what Heathrow was like (10 min)
• Uncle Jim and his trains (11 min, 10 secs)
• Uncle Jim and his sailing (12 min, 40 secs)
• Thinking she would die in hospital (15 min, 20 secs)
• Being paralysed as a child (16 min, 30 secs)
• Having scarlet fever as a child (17 min, 30 secs)
• Very old relatives (18 min, 30 secs)
• Old clocks and teapots (21 min, 30 secs)
• More about relatives (23 min)
• About relatives being Quakers (24 min, 30 secs)
• Northern roots (25 min, 50 secs)
• Her parents (27 min, 20 secs)
• Her singing in light opera (31 min, 30 secs)
• Her grandfather making home liqueur (32 min)

Just in case the above video stops working, it's also available here on Google Video.

Grandma

Gran died a few months ago. She'd been sick for a long time so it wasn't a surprise but it was still very sad and we miss her a lot. This has been the first Christmas without her. When I was going through some of the camcorder film I found various clips of Gran. This is a compilation.

Gran and her Gorbo toy - Gorbo was a lovely cat who used to belong to Dave and I but when we moved overseas, Gran adopted him. She missed him dreadfully when she had to give him to Dad to look after when she moved into the nursing home, so this was the next best thing.



Gran and her sister Aunty Evelyn - at Ken and Espie's house, cuddling and posing for photographs in their lounge.



Visiting Gran at Sims Lodge - with Mum, Dave and I. Gran is quite lively here, walking around and talking, albeit somewhat gingerly. I especially like how she attacked Mum in the beginning with a barrage of kisses!



Gran in Queenscliff - this was in June 2004, the time I rushed back to Australia for a 4 day visit as Mum told me Gran was ill! It turned out that she rallied and was so well on one of the days I visited her that I got to take her outside for a short wheel around the local shops. This was the last time I was with Gran when she was awake and lively. At the end of this we went to a teashop and everyone - including Gran - enjoyed some tea and cake.

visiting Melbourne (Jan 2003)

In the days after Christmas Dave and I caught up with friends and family in Melbourne. At some of the gatherings people filmed. Much of it isn't great footage but it brought back memories so thought I'd upload it for posterity.

Sam's alpacas - we spent New Year's Eve with friends on their property in Deniliquin. They breed alpacas, who are wonderful creatures - so inquisitive and cute but quite bizarre looking too in an Australian setting. Especially so at this time of year where they looked so scrawny from only recently being sheared! Notice too that they all look like they're wearing legwarmers... this is because they don't shear below their knee as it helps to give them some protection against snake bite.



Horse riding with Dad - This is only a very short clip as Mum filmed it while we were just saddling up. I remember we went galloping up a dirt road in the forest and trekking along some overgrown parts you had to duck to avoid trees.



Trip on Puffing Billy - Puffing Billy is a lovely steam train that goes up through the hills past Belgrave. Most Melbourne schoolkids have fond memories of school excursions to ride on it. It's a lovely way to spend a few hours. I have especially good memories of it as we hired Puffing Billy for our wedding; we took all the guests up into the hills for the day and had a lovely late night ride back. Anyway, this is some snippets from a trip I took with Dave and Pete one afternoon.



BBQ at Pete's house - In the evening after going on Puffing Billy we went to Pete's house in Belgrave. Mum and Dad came over and we had a BBQ in the front garden. Dad did some filming and commentary including lots of Tummothy, our cat who Pete was looking after.



Garden at Upwey - This is some rough film of the backyard of a house Dave & I bought a few years ago, so we'd have somewhere to live if we needed to return to Melbourne suburbia. The house looks a lot more dilapidated than it really is, but the reason I fell in love with it is because of the garden. It is wonderful, nearly 3/4 of an acre with lots of established trees including enormous rhododendrons and treeferns. Because the garden is so nice one of Dave's friends Wayne (who maintains gardens for a living) looks after it so we don't have to rely on the tenants. On this trip back Dave helped Wayne clear out some blackberries that had run riot in the bottom of the garden. I went along to help too as this was the first (and only) chance I've ever had to spend any time there.



Gran at Sim's Lodge - this was the last time I saw Gran when she was living at Sims Lodge. This was a nursing home for people in the early stages of dementia and it really felt like a home. Families were encouraged to come and go as much as they wanted, so Gran usually had at least 1 or 2 visitors every weekend (it was 3 hours drive away from where everyone else lived, but it was the best nursing home Mum found and in the area Gran had spent the past 30-odd years). Gran was quite frail but still able to talk and move around on her own. It was a lovely visit.

>

Evening BBQ at Dave's parents - they have a lovely patio area where we've spent many happy evenings. This film is from fairly late on in the night and the big event was the arrival of "Poss", the possum who came down to eat scraps left out for him!

Christmas with the family (Dec 2002)

This is pretty special as it was the last time we got to spend Christmas all together. Dave and I had flown back to Australia and we'd all arranged to stay at a hotel near Gran's nursing home so she could be with us for the grand "present unwrapping" session! This year I think was also the first that both Dave and Paul had been in attendance (Paul had been before but we were overseas). The next day Gran came with us to Uncle Ken & Aunt Espy's for the traditional family BBQ, and Aunt Evelyn (Gran's elder sister) was there too. This is the last time I saw Aunty and Gran together.

There's a couple of clips:

First, Dad and Dave having a Christmas morning walk on the beach opposite the hotel with the dogs - Angie, Dally (the dalmation) and Bonz, also known as Boofhead as he has the largest head of any dog I've ever seen!



Second, Dad and Pete went to pick up Gran and bring her to the hotel. We'd rented a self-catering apartment so we had a big loungeroom where we set up the tree. Dad was master of ceremonies in giving out presents (we rotate it each year) and Dave amused himself by filming the entire thing. I'm sparing you the fullblown 2 hour version; this is just the half hour edited highlights. It was actually pretty funny to listen back to all the wisecracks, Dave especially had a lot of fun teasing Dad.



Finally, this is at Ken and Espie's house where they hosted the traditional BBQ. It was in their garage as that was the only place we could all fit that was out of the sun! I remember it being a very hot day so we all ate lots of cold desserts like Aunty's specialty trifle. There's a lovely bit at the end where you see Gran and Aunty Evelyn having a hug on the sofa.

Webb family trip to Alaska (1977)

In January 1977 our family went to Alaska to visit Dad’s relatives. We lived in Australia so this would be a big trip even by today's standards... back then it was even more of an expedition! I've pulled together a collection of old Super8 footage from that trip, mostly featuring us playing in the snow. Dad skis, we all toboggan, a car gets stuck, we watch a dog-sled race, I find an iceberg and we see lots of scenery of fir trees in the snow... As with other of the super8 films, I've added on an audio commentary from Mum. To make it easier to upload, I had to split it into two films:

Part One(sledding, scenery)



and Part Two (ski-ing, cars, dog sledding).



On the way back to Australia, we had a day's stopover in Hawaii while changing plans. This is some footage - part filmed by Mum, part from a tourist roll she bought. It's a bit of a tourist whirlwind view but interesting in a kitsch kind of way. It begins with film out the plane window as we flew over Pearl Harbour. It's also got some footage from Pearl Harbour of the actual battle which Mum filmed at the exhibit. Mostly though it's just nice scenery.

visiting Sovereign Hill (early 1980's)

Sovereign Hill is a touristy old goldmining town in Ballarat, an hour or two's drive outside Melbourne in Australia. This is some video of a visit that Mum took my little brother Pete & little sister Jen on. I'm not with them so my guess is either it was a treat for them to help make up for Mum spending so much time with me at the ice-rink, or it was while I was overseas training. I'm not sure exactly the date but it's early 1980's sometime.



I got quite nostalgic watching this, I'd forgotten how fresh-faced and sweet they both used to be. (This is before teenager-hood hit!) My favourite clip is of them winding up a heavy bucket of sand from a deep pit... Pete manages to bring it to the top, Jen is determined also to do it but she's just not quite tall enough. I also especially like the clip of them buying lemonade, they were so cute & polite!

Jenny rollerskating (early 1980's)

My little sister Jen used to roller-skate. This is a compilation of various clips of her skating... she looks very sweet! I'm not sure the exact year but my guess is it's from the early 1980's. Included are clips of her practicing at Bayswater Roller Rink (in eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia) and two routines where she's skating in either a competition or exhibition. There's also an exhibition routine with a bunch of other young kids skating to a Broadway number.

Mum's 21st birthday (1968)

Mum had two 21st birthday parties – one for family and the other for friends, as they couldn’t fit everyone in otherwise. This film contains footage from both parties. It was originally filmed on 8mm with no sound, but I’ve now added a commentary by Mum. Among other things she names all the people there who she remembers, many of whom are her friends from the East Kew Baptist Church. The parties were held either in her parents house (my Gran and Grampy) at 40 Belford Road, East Kew in Melbourne Australia and at the church hall.



Family included are Kevin & Nola, Ken, Aunty Evelyn & Uncle Garvin, Grandma Olga & Grampy Lindsay Hunter, & “Da’, my great grandfather.

Mum’s friends who came included: David Lawrence (who taught Mum how to film), Ian & Sue Ponton, Marg Hall, Sue Herald, Angela & Gavin Finlay, John & Geoff Woods, Libby Church, Ian & Andrew Gillard, Sue Black, Norm Cobain, Helen Stephens and Penny Price.

Mum & Dad in Guam (1969)

My Mum and Dad used to live on Guam. Here's some film they took which we’ve just unearthed. It was 8mm film, so no sound, but when we watched it for the first time I gave Mum a microphone to record a commentary. It makes it a little more interesting when you know what’s being shown! Unfortunately I messed up on the volume levels so you’ll have to turn up your speaker to the max to hear it.



There’s a real mix of footage here, including:

***Mum and Dad’s house – the outside area and inside. They lived right near the Bayview Baptist Church and the serviceman’s club which you can see in the footage.

***A social picnic / volleyball game – organised by the club & church.

***Lovely white beach, near Anderson Air Force Base

***Driving round the island on Dad’s motorbike. This includes driving through the capital Agana… overall, the whole place seems very unspoilt and beautiful.


In terms of timeframe, the film is in 2 parts.

The first section is various footage taken during the second half of 1969 (June onwards). My Mum and Dad - Dawn and John Webb - had just been married in Australia and returned to Guam where Dad was based (he was in the US Navy during the war). For the first six months or so of their marriage they lived on Guam. Mum then returned early to Australia at the end of 1969 when she was pregnant with me, and Dad stayed on until he was let out of the military and then came to join us.

The second section is footage from Mum’s visit in early 1969, when Mum went to Guam to meet Dad for the first time. I didn’t switch the order because it would have messed up the commentary, but this is at least 6 months earlier than the first section. It’s an amazing story actually… Mum and Dad were penpals through their churches and Dad proposed to Mum in a letter before they’d even met! Mum went to Guam from Australia to meet Dad before she accepted properly and this is that trip, which was a pretty intrepid thing to do in those days. I think my favourite bit of this footage is of Dad shimmying up a palm tree, obviously trying to impress Mum!

Gran & Grampy (1968)

This is a collection of clips of my Grandma Olga (known to us as either 'Gran' or 'Grannilumpkin') and Grandpa Lindsay (known as 'Grampy').



First, there's a clip of Gran getting out of the family car - which was shared by my Mum and Grampy - going into East Kew State school. Mum says she's pretty sure this was Gran on her way to do her cleaning job there.

Then, a short clip of Gran, Grampy and some unknown lady in Gran's lounge. We think this is at their house opposite the old fire station in East Kew (40 Belford Road). I can even recognise some of the chairs and the curtains in this clip as they were kept and re-used at Gran & Grampy's retirement house!

A small interlude of some of Grampy's roses - of which he was very proud - and finishing on one of my favourite clips... This shows Grampy, who died when I was 10, feeding a wild bird he'd befriended in the front garden at the Belford Road house. The film reel says the bird is 'Larch' but whether this was the bird's nickname or breed, I don't know. This clip is special because there are so few clips of Grampy as he hated being filmed. You can also see the family car in the background.

Me as a baby! (1970)

Dad sent over some old reels of Film which I had professionally converted to VHS so I could see what was on them. (We used Aarchive Film who I'd recommend if anyone else in UK is seeking help doing this). There's lots of interesting clips from this but my favourite so far is the footage of me as a baby!

Here are some clips:

Me as a baby, aged 9 weeks according to Mum, being given a bath and then a bottle from Dad


Me, aged around 7 months, playing & being generally fussed over. My favourite parts of this are the piggy-back ride; me stubbornly refusing to move; 'walking' with Gran holding me upright; and learning to splash in my first swimming pool! There's also a very cute little red horse pram thing that I don't remember at all but Mum says I loved and she used to push me in all over East Kew.


All are filmed at Gran and Grampy's old house which was at 40 Belford Road, East Kew in Melbourne Australia. I especially love the (now very trendy and retro) kitchen you can see in the start of the second clip. Mum says that it was trendy originally in the 1950's but out of fashion by the time this was filmed, but Gran still liked it.