Saturday, November 14, 2009

Rock me like a hurricane!

Hurricane Gloria, that is!

The awful weather we're experiencing from the remnants of Storm Ida reminded me that this is a video project I've been meaning to get around to for months now.

(This ain't politics, but there is some footage of former Gov. Bill O'Neill and a much younger Sen. Dodd)

It's my video of the legendary 1985 storm bearing down upon and hitting Milford and the Connecticut coastline. I posted two versions of the video; one with clips from local and national news both before and after my prehistoric VHS camcorder footage, and the other, shorter one which is only my footage. In case any news organization decides that their 24-year old footage is too precious to allow it on Youtube and they delete the longer video.

But you really should watch the longer one, because it has a lot of 80s Americana in it, including the Life cereal commercial with Mikey ("He won't eat it, he hates everything!")

So here's both videos. The first has the complete footage with the news, and the second is only my stuff. In both I carefully edited out all the shots that included me with my truly dreadful haircut and an awful 1980s-style pornstar mustache. (don't worry, I've still got plenty of tape in the vault; eventually you'll see footage of me rockin' my hip Burt Reynolds 'stache!)

1985, I was obviously destined to become a video blogger. I just had to wait for them to invent the Internet. And Windows. And high-speed access. But eventually...

And yes, even after all these years, I still don't have enough sense to come in out of the rain!

Full video:


My footage only:

4 comments:

tessa said...

Great that you have this! JAKE'S!!!

We bought out house in Milford the following month. Mike Brown was living in the condos that used to be a school, over in Ft. Trumbull area, about two blocks in from where you shot at 3 min.

I am on an aircard right now so have to wait to watch it until I am in the hotel in Los Angeles for a smoother stream. The stop/start is driving me nuts.

CT Bob said...

Yeah, I don't even want to think about how many brain cells I left in Jake's. Back then you could get into bars when you were 16 if you had a mustache and an older friend's license (no photo ID then!)

Fort Trumbull school is where I went to first grade.

carterman said...

Bob, great video! I was 12 at the time living with my parents in Roxbury. We were out of power for a week too. A couple of questions. What is that box on your dash in your car to the left of the steering wheel? CB radio? Also, did you own your boat at the time? If so was it damaged? It looks like many boats were damaged.

CT Bob said...

Wow, I feel old! The box was an old-fashioned radar detector. And no, I didn't have a boat for another three years...fortunately!

The car was a 1985 Mustang LX with a 3.8L V6. Man, I loved that car. I put almost 200K miles on it before I got my next car, a '95 Pontiac Grand Am.