In 2024, bite-sized videos cut down for YouTube or TikTok dominate, with funny cat videos and dramatic two-part storytimes raking in clicks and views.
But in the early to mid-1900s, a different type of video took precedence — home videos captured on film.
And now, the Charlotte County Archives are sharing some of those movies with the community.
“They’re not up to professional standards, and of course, they’re not edited down to TikTok,” said Franklin Cardy, who chairs the archives and oversees the audiovisual collection.
“This is what you get. You sit through this patiently and if you get lots of pictures of cabbages, well just think, ‘what’s there on that land now?'”
Every Sunday afternoon, people are invited to take a stroll down memory lane in Saint Andrews at the New Brunswick Community College.
For last week’s event, Colin Mundy was the star of the show — a New Zealander who came to Saint Andrews in 1954 and stayed for three years, said Cardy.
One of Mundy’s films depicts Christmas Day in 1954 Saint Andrews, beginning with the snowy Algonquin Resort before showing different locations around the town including glimpses into some Christmas Day skating, sledding and road hockey.
Mundy also documented his work on the O’Neill Farm, first showing spring plowing followed by the process of seeding, fertilizing, weeding, right up to the harvest.
He was also present for the opening of Vincent Massey High School in 1956 when Massey, governor general at the time, came to open the school that bore his namesake.
Sunday’s edition of the home videos, said Cardy, will focus on Teddy Rooney, a postal worker.
Cardy said Rooney would be on the scene for any accident — capturing events like the lobster plant fire in 1974 and the Groundhog Day storm in 1976.
He said Rooney also captured the bustle of the steam trains coming and going.
Cardy said the archives also have colour film from well-known Saint Andrews resident W.C. (Bill) O’Neill, who began filming before the war and continued through into the 1960s.
One of O’Neill’s films shows brightly coloured flowers and rock gardens around the Anderson House, formerly called Linkscrest or the Tait House, which was home to Sir Thomas and Lady Tait until his death in 1941.
O’Neill also captured King George VI and Queen Elizabeth’s 1939 arrival at Fairville Station in Saint John.
Cardy said once the films were digitized, he sought help from local residents who might remember some of the pivotal moments, and they sat down and recorded commentary to play over the silent films.
Cardy said he thinks people enjoy looking at old home videos because it brings back memories of when they were younger.
But he said it’s also interesting from a climate change perspective.
“We have film from 1939 of Katy’s Cove in Saint Andrews, frozen over and everybody out there skating on it,” he said.
“And this is quite a long way away from where we are now. I looked out my front window two days ago and there was a man out kayaking on the harbour.”
While many of the digitized films are on YouTube now, Cardy said the group wanted to reach a greater audience. He said some of the people who might remember these moments aren’t comfortable fighting with technology to watch them.
So, by playing them on Sundays, more people are able to see them.
“It’s a classroom whiteboard, but it’s relatively big, and so it’s good,” he said.
“It’s a different experience anyway and no commercials.”
With files from Information Morning Saint John
This story was originally published in CBC News on Feb. 4, 2024.
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