Back when my in-laws celebrated their 50th anniversary, VH came up with what I considered a very thoughtful gift. He spent hours — darn near a hundred of them — scanning old family photographs into his computer to turn them into a slide-show presentation that he played at the anniversary party. Unfortunately, a lot of his family’s movies on VHS didn’t transfer well, but there were enough film clips to at least bring tears to the eyes of many watching.

It was such a special thing, seeing my husband’s childhood captured on film: the ungodly short shorts he sported in the 70s, back when his hair “feathered” perfectly and his twin sisters dressed like Charlie’s Angels, complete with bouncy curls and neck scarves. Quite strange, too, to see my mother- and father-in-law when they were younger, back before their hair turned gray and they’d acquired the senior citizen habit of slowly shuffling as they walk.

Unfortunately, there were all too few VHS tapes available. Back when my husband was a child, home movies used Kodak’s Double 8 film — a product the company stopped producing back in the early 90s. Oh, we tried looking all over for an affordable 8 mm movie projector but now such things are, like my husband, considered “antiques”. So rather than including many of those memories we simply assumed they were forever lost.

Turns out, it’s possible to convert 8 mm film to DVD now, without even having one of those old projectors. The very thought of “unlocking” all of those years of his past absolutely intrigues me. Sure, it’s probably a little voyeuristic, but there’s also something remarkable about being able to experience the years in your spouse’s life that were lived long before you were ever part of the picture.

Did he always quirk his head to the side when impatient? Has his hair always had the same mink-colored hue? Would I have had a crush on my husband if I’d known him back then? I have no idea right now, but I’ll know the answers soon enough once we move the 8 mm film to DVD. Then I can watch my husband’s first steps, hear the first words he spoke, see him ride a bicycle for the first time. And our son can see how much he looks like his dad did at the same age — how they walk almost exactly alike, their shoulders squared and lean arms swinging freely. What an amazing experience!

Even VH is a bit excited about it, particularly since the film transfer process can actually improve the original movies, giving them those nice bright colors, the greens of summer, that Paul Simon once sang about. The memories of his childhood can all be his again, as vivid and colorful as the first time he experienced them.

Which means, of course, that I’ll get to spend years teasing him over the precise shade of pink his cheeks turned as his parents filmed the first time a girl kissed him on the cheek. As if those darned short shorts didn’t give me enough to tease him about already, eh?

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