Missing In Action; The Lost Footage

Apparently I took my movie camera with me to Long Beach back in 1975 (with Don and Dan) and returned home a few days later having only used the camera to capture ONE TINY SCENE lasting 5 seconds in duration. I find this a little hard to swallow. Even harder to believe, is the fact that it wasn't me that shot those precious 5 seconds of footage. I'm clearly the person seen waving from the shoreline IN FRONT of the camera during that one snippet. (Snippet included below).

Now, there's no way I could have contained myself to a paltry 5 seconds of film making while on vacation. It's frustrating to think that a roll or two of super 8 film from that trip may have been lost or misplaced over the years. Did I even receive all my rolls back from the Kodak processing plant at the time? Were any rolls lost in the mail? After more than 3 decades, it's probably a little too late to start making enquiries.

The same concern has been nagging me about two other holiday films that SHOULD be in my collection - but are not. One was a 1974 trip to Manning Park and the other was a 1973 summer's day at Spanish Banks (both with Doug and Paul). Not to mention a few scenes of Laine & Iris on the block in 1974; and more of Dan and Bartholomew in Seattle in 1980. While I haven't completely finished the transferring project, I'm well aware of just what's next on the transfer treadmill. And the films I've just mentioned are NOT among the reels currently waiting their turn in line.

However, not all is lost. Here's a short collection of images spanning the middle years of the 1970s that were not misplaced or mismanaged.