Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for December 25, 2024

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah……Have A Happy & Blessed Day To All

I had color film on my Super 8 home camera before VCR’s!

Merry Christmas, to all the Crankies out there!

May the blessing of the Holy Theotokos be on everyone on this day of the Nativity. And may this start of Hanukkah be a blessed one for all.

(I’m Eastern Orthodox by the way if you haven’t guessed.)

Leave a place at your table for absent friends and family today; they may be not bodily present, yet they are there in memory and conversation if you let them attend.

Whoa player still work and such clear footage quality too and…in glorious black and white. No way old vhs be so clear.

And say is that young Crankshaft? He was world war2 veteran was he not. Was there VHS tapes back in those days when he and his pal still young? VHS tapes cames in 1970s if me recalling it correctly.

If he world war 2 veteran then he mostly between 20 or 30 year old in 1930-40s then he be 50 or 60 years old by the time there be VHS tapes. How on earth there be VHS tape when he and his pal be still young?

Oh, my, stupid inferior computer screen, it’s tearing up!

Just enjoy the sentiment Gent.

I’m going out on a limb here and snuggest. Ed is sitting in the chair. The two little girls are Ed’s. And the lady on the right is Ed’s wife who I don’t ever remember seeing before. Of course the other three are Ralph, Helen and Timmy.

I don’t care about the super 8/VCR controversy.

Circa 1956. I remember. Christmas in Maine.

Memories. Like the corners of my mind, Misty watercolor memories, of the way we were.Barbara Streisand, The Way We Were, 1973.

Just like you can have VHS transferred to modern now at one time and VHS was the thing you could have 16 mm transfer to VHS

did anyone say merry christmas ralph yet ?

Whoa gent – It is the magic of Christmas! All you trolls should try it! It just might make you better people! LOL and merry Christmas to all!

Wide screen? VHS would be in 4:3 aspect.

Are Ralph and Ed brothers or something?

Priceless

Too many question’s…just enjoy.

You can close your eyes to reality but not to memories.

Don’t throw clinkers today.

Merry Wednesday to all and to all a happy midweek!

Photographs and memories

Christmas cards you sent to me

All that I have are these

To remember you

Memories that come at night

Take me to another time

Back to a happier day

When I called you mine

But we sure had a good time

When we started way back when

Morning walks and bedroom talks

Oh how I loved you then

Summer skies and lullabies

Nights we couldn’t say good-bye

And of all of the things that we knew

Not a dream survived

Photographs and memories

All the love you gave to me

Somehow it just can’t be true

That’s all I’ve left of you

But we sure had a good time

When we started way back when

Morning walks and bedroom talks

Oh how I loved you then

There was black-and-white video cassette technology in the late 1960s and early 1970s. One example was the old Sony U-Matic, a 3/4" black-and-white videocassette system on which the original “Groove Tube” circulated around the college circuit in early 1972 (before being re-made on color film as a theatrical movie in 1974). While it’s unlikely that Ralph would have had a B&W video camera and recorder in his home at that time, it’s not impossible. Wikipedia says Sony’s first U-matic recorder, released in 1971, was intended for home use, though it was so expensive that the vast majority of the units were sold to institutional and corporate customers. If Ralph was working for the school district at the time, it is possible that they had a VO-1600 and he could have brought it home for a family gathering. I do not know when Timmy officially died in strip time, but if it’s after Christmas 1971-2 a black-and-white videotape is possible.

Anyone else realize that the last Funky Sunday came out two years ago today? IMO,it’s one of the best Christmas strips a comic has had.

The vcr is in his heart and mind. Moments shared, good and bad, the times that made up our life. Photographs and memories all the hope you gave to me.

What happened to his wife and kid? I don’t think I ever knew.

True family togetherness.