My parents, Les and Connie, while still in their Twenties, moved to Redcliffe in Queensland from Sydney with their first son (my eldest brother), Tony, before the Second World War.
I was born there in 1942 and suckled in an air-raid shelter, as the Japanese threatened to bomb the American Forces stationed in the area. General Douglas Macarthur had his Pacific Headquarters in Brisbane, an hour away by car.
Their close friends, Hugh and Mary Darragh, the local Pharmacist in this small country town across the Hornibrook Highway north of Brisbane, were home-movie buffs. They are responsible for most of the footage in this video.
The Les and Connie Musgrave Family of the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s from Michael Mus on Vimeo.
My brother Tony inherited the home-movies, and transferred the images from the old celluloid to a video cassette. I have now digitalised it and hopefully have an interesting, accessible archive of the early beginnings of mum and dad, and our family of five children – Tony, Michael, Anne, Mark and Cathie.
Tony, Mark and Anne’s grandchildren may enjoy seeing their parents cavorting as 4 and 7 year-olds. I wonder?
Photos of our grandparents are included at the end of the video.
This is a valuable treasure for the next generation of Musgraves who probably otherwise would have no concept of how their ancestors looked or dressed. It will be interesting for Jude to see his Grandfather Tony, running up and down sand dunes at Redcliffe at the tender age of 3 years old, once he is old enough to understand.
my mother was once a child
thank you mick & tony
that was cool – I liked it a lot
Now I know where my granddaughters get all that cartwheeling, pushing over, shoulder rides, and chasey from! Wasn’t Mark Mus a holy terror/tease. No wonder he was nicknamed “Tiger Tim”!
Michael, that was sooo good. You are all very lucky to have such a memento. Glad to see that you finally made it on the big screen – I was beginning to wonder if you had been adopted. Ray must have inherited his pipe smoking habit from his big brother Les.
Wow! I had no idea there was so much footage of nanna as a child! I liked the bit of Mark and Nanna making funny faces. I wonder if MY uncle Michael will do this for me one day. Well done!
Michael!!!!!!!!!
What an amazingly precious film of your parents and your siblings at such a tender age – it really touched my sentimental heart.
Loved it,
Junie
Uncle Michael – wow! I have only every seen grainy photos of my Grandad, (didnt meet him sadly) and was almost in tears viewing the young Musgrave children playing with Les and Connie – and in colour no less! What a fantastic home movie indeed – you have outdone yourself yet again! How about the fashion?! 🙂
I will be showing my kids this video in the future!
Dear Michael,
Thank you for this digital rendition of the Darragh’s home movies. It is good to have a valuable piece of our history preserved beyond the demise of the 8mm movie and VHS eras. Now it will be so easy to save permanently and share.
love from Ruth and me,
Tony
Pretty cool–thanks Bob