August 31 st
I watched the news on August 28th, with my Mom who was visiting from New Hampshire, praying that our family and friends were safe from Hurricane Irene. Thanks to social networks, especially Facebook, Mom and I could keep up with the going on’s, almost obsessively, as they were happening.
What a time we live in, where we can share feelings, emotions and history across the country or the world instantly.
I grew up in the Upper Valley in New Hampshire and couldn’t believe my eyes as I watched the images pop up, one after another on Facebook. Refreshing the page, only to receive, no less than at least twenty new photo’s, video links and flood updates. Places I played at as a child, roads I drove on daily and businesses I frequented often, all under water.
It made me sad.
Luckily, none of my family or friends were harmed or got hurt. Only wet. Very wet.
I’m currently home recovering from a Cervical Spine operation and there is very little my Dr. has allowed me to do. No lifting, bending, twisting, driving as well as a bunch of other stuff. I can, however work on my computer. Hmmmmm? This gave me an idea.
Years ago in the mid 80’s my parents bought a VHS video camera. Home Video camera’s were new and exciting and not everyone had them living in their pockets disguised as phones. Wanting to be a film maker, I used the VHS Video camera and taped everything. This included my friends and I jumping from a covered bridge in Quechee Vermont in the summer of 1988, weeks before I started my freshman year at Franklin Pierce College as a… you guessed it, a Mass Communication (Film/TV) Major. I brought the footage to College with me and edited it together.
Cut to… August 28th 2011, almost 23 years to the day of when we filmed us jumping off the Quechee Covered Bridge, I watched as Hurricane Irene was trying to wash the bridge away. Today, as I write this, the bridge is still standing but barely. I’m sure the community will do it’s best to save it along with the many other bridges that were beaten on during the Hurricane.
Here, after 23 years, I pulled out the footage, of me and the boys jumping off the bridge, edited it together with a video I found on YouTube and created my own little hommage to the Quechee Covered Bridge. She will always live on, regardless of her fate after Hurricane Irene, in the hearts of many of us who grew up in the Upper Valley!
Enjoy!
I AM The Hollywood Clown