We are beginning the VanChaMasShe History Project. Our neighborhood has a 60-year tradition centered around the 4th of July block party. We will be collecting photos and other artifacts to post online, as well as personal remembrances.
To kick things off, we present a short movie provided by Clemens Rath of Ratingen, Germany. Clem and his family lived in VanChaMasShe Land (as it was then called) until 1960 when his family moved back to their native Germany. In 2008, Clem’s sister Mary Mazar did a Google search for VanChaMasShe and found our web site! Clem and Mary got in touch, and visited in both 2008 and 2009.
Clem and Mary’s father shot some Super 8 film of the VanChaMasShe 4th of July parade, which Clem had in his possession. Clem converted the footage to a digital file, set it to music and gave a copy to the VanChaMasShe Neighborhood Association. We are pleased and delighted to share this wonderful time capsule with everyone. The exact date of the film footage is not known, but Clem says it’s the mid 1950s.
To play the movie, click the picture below. (This is a big file, so it may take some time to load and display.)