I get so many comments from viewers about the 1950s even though less than 10% of my viewers on YouTube grew up at that time. Some people want to go back to that time even if they didn't live through it as they see it as the pinnacle of the American dream. Others just like the uptight is, the rules of that time.

Over the years I have collected home movies from the 1950s and 1960s. This clip, a home movie made in Pasadena, California involved with high school events and celebrations, looks when I see it, like a fantasy of happiness and ease and beauty.

So I decided to present it to you and added some music to increase the nostalgic feeling. Nostalgia is a feeling that just plain feels good but is dangerous because older folks like me can get hooked into repeating "oh do you remember when it costs $0.25!" and a thousand other phrases like it which always make the past sound better than the present.

That seems to be a part of the human experience. If things were always better going back through Roman and Greek ancient history to Adam and Eve, with every generation feeling that way, I can't imagine how horrible present life would be. I don't see it that way. The present is really, it seems to me, quite wonderful and alive and new with unexpected and often times positive feelings available if you just see it that way.

This Pasadena California special event shows people who are not baby boomers. They are folks from the silent generation (my generation) although films that I have in my collection from 1960 through 1966 show the same kind of people with the same kind of mood. Happy. Beautiful. Almost slow-motion in its ease.

Of course this home movie, shot an 8 mm, is black and white. If it were color I don't think it would be any better.

If anything about this interested you, I would appreciate your supporting my efforts to continue to post these videos by clicking on the Super Thanks button below the video screen.
Thank you.
David Hoffman filmmaker