Silent Movies--Things to do in Oakdale (or in this case, Valley Home!)

My Grandparents and my Uncle Edwin (left) and my Dad in the mid-40's.

This weekend we went to do one of my new favorite things. The silent movie showing at St. John's Lutheran Church in Valley Home. It's a fundraiser for the church they do every year...and there's PIE! (Homemade pie!)...and ICE CREAM! (Homemade ice cream!) The event is emceed by Matias Bombal who used to host a swing radio show on KUOP (among many other endeavors) and has been very involved in keeping the history of turn of the century entertainment alive in Northern CA.
I don't know how many people who will read this have ever seen a silent movie accompanied by a pipe organist, but it is something I used to do a lot as a little girl, so I guess I shouldn't have said it's a "new" favorite thing. You see, one of my grandfather's very favorite things was pipe organs. He belonged to a preservationist group that traveled all over rescuing pipe organs--removing them carefully, lovingly from their original place and replacing them in a new home, and then going and listening to organists expertly turn their sounds into trains and cars and telephones, accompanying the movies that he watched in his youth. I would go to see the movies with him and my grandma, and my grandpa was *transformed* by these events. He was truly giddy! He would lean into my ear, beaming from ear to ear and point and say "his feet! Watch his feet! Look what he's doing with his feet!" I just liked hanging out with my grandpa and grandma, and when he was beaming from ear to ear, so was I.
A little history from my grandpa's stories to share with you. He saw his very first silent film here in Oakdale. It was shown outside on Third Street in an alley--the alley that backs up to Alexandra's. No pipe organ yet, but still made an impression on him, one that he re-told stories about for the rest of his life.
The video clip at the end of this post is the organist who accompanied the Buster Keaton film we saw on Sunday. Watching him (and watching his feet work) made my heart ache remembering the times I spent listening to pipe organs with Grandpa.

In this shot the organist, Dave Moreno, was impersonating a steam locomotive with the pipe organ. Sounded real to me, too, Eli!

Ain't no party like a Lutheran Church party, cause the Lutheran Church don't stop!

All you can eat HOMEMADE ICE CREAM--3 different kinds!! (The chefs insisted we must try all three!)

Homemade pie $3 a slice...it was a hard decision...but Caroline and I settled on a raspberry treat.

My dad in his boater. He said he had a hard time deciding between his boater and his bowler.

I think he made the right choice. I have a rule about taking pictures of people eating, which he

is reminding be about in this picture...

If you're curious, here's 4 minutes of Dave Moreno playing the train. This video does the in-person experience no justice!