Tag Archives: Vintage

Happy Father’s Day, Mr. Fancy Pants

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By Dana McIntyre  @danamcintyre1

Father’s Day is coming up and this year is more special to me than ever.  Six months ago we were not sure my Dad would even be around for Father’s Day.   He was diagnosed with a blood cancer and started chemo treatments immediately.   (He recently underwent a stem cell transplant, and I am blessed to say that it was successful!)

This year for Father’s Day I plan on doing something different for him.  I am going back through my old photos and finding the ones that make me laugh, the ones that make me remember and the ones that make me happy.  I want him to know how much those memories mean to me and how lucky I am to have the best dad in the world.

I want him to know that I remember seeing the thousands of jellyfish in the water on our beach trip to Panama City.  I remember camping in our 1970’s VolksWagon van and catching my first trout in the river up in the north Georgia mountains.  I remember going to the pool and being mesmerized by the tsunami that he created by doing a cannonball off the diving board.  I want him to know that I cherish every one of those memories!

And I plan on giving those memories back to him through StoryMark.

And as much as I love my dad, I will have to make fun of his short sleeved turtleneck shirt and plaid pants combo from 1974.  It’s classic.

 

 

Capture Generations of Stories Before They Are Gone

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My 18 year old son Matthew is visiting my 93 year old grandmother this week in Mississippi.  Last night I called him to see how things were going.  He interrupted me mid-sentence and said “I have to call you back.  Banma is telling me old stories.”  (Yes, we call our grandmother Banma – it’s got to be a Southern thing to call your grandmother by some silly name, which clearly we do.)

Later he called me back and said “That was so awesome.  I just heard all kinds of stories about this house.  Did you know that my great, great, great grandfather died in here?”

The house was built in the mid 1800’s and generation after generation was born there, all the way down to my mother.  (The tradition stopped when I was born due to the invention of epidurals.)   There were weddings and even deaths in that house.

Banma told Matthew stories of how the house was framed on top of huge tree trunks that were brought up from the back woods.  He heard about my great, great grandfather who literally died of a broken heart upon hearing that his wife had just passed away.  He learned that my grandmother gave birth to my mother in the front bedroom on a cold Christmas morning.

These stories, like many other generations of stories could one day be lost.  This is one of the main reasons why StoryMark was created…to capture those memories and stories before they are gone.

Sit down with your grandmother or grandfather and have them StoryMark their old photos.  Use the camera on your iPhone to capture the images, and let the story telling begin.

You may also find out interesting tidbits like we did. For example, following the birth of my mother, my grandmother got up and cooked Christmas dinner.  Boy times have changed.

Twitter @danamcintyre1

For more information, please visit www.storymarklife.com or download for free in the iPhone app store or Android Marketplace.

Uncle Fred & The Dizzy Video

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My Uncle Fred had spent his life working on B-52 bombers and various other airplanes during WWII and then worked at Delta Airlines in Atlanta until his retirement in 1970.  Many years later, I decided to surprise him with a video showing him how much the airport had changed since he left.  I went around Hartsfield International Airport taping tidbits of places that he might recognize.

Days later, I was eager to see his reaction as we watched the video of planes taking off overhead, the enormity of the Delta hanger, the Plane Train from concourse to concourse, and various other places around the airport that had clearly changed in the many years since he had left.  However, when I turned around to see his face I realized he was sound asleep!   I asked him what he thought about the video and he said it made him so dizzy that he had to close his eyes, at which point the Sandman entered.

It was then that I realized a lot of people have a hard time watching videos filmed by hand.  Unless you have a tripod it is hard to get really good shots without the shaking.  Even then it can be difficult when the action is moving fast – take a hockey game for instance.

With StoryMark, you can take a clean, crisp still photo and add your own audio.  Imagine a clear shot of a hockey player right in front of the net, ready to score.  A regular – a “silent” photo is fine, but where is the excitement? The yelling?  The obnoxious hockey moms? And what about the sound of the buzzer when someone scores?

Take that fantastic photo and add the audio of the fans screaming, the buzzer buzzing, and the familiar beat of the drums as the “Hey” song by Gary Glitter starts blaring through the speakers.  Now that’s a picture with emotion – all without the dizzying side effects of motion!

I’ll bet Uncle Fred would love it.  Now, if only we can bottle up the smell of engine fuel for him…

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