Ten years into my teaching career I moved my family halfway across the country to take a job in the small town where I’d grown up and later inherited a house. My schedule included a couple sections of a digital media class. For the first time I would have a chance to make videos, a goal coming out of college 15 years before. The students were sharp and eager, many of them well ahead of me in Photoshop. But video production was also part of the course, and it seemed like I could show them something in that direction.
The place had a military history, having sprung up in the late 1800s next to an old cavalry fort that stayed active through WWII. It witnessed the town’s best, most populous and prosperous years. There were also many veterans around, so Veterans Day was a good subject for that place.
High school students were the intended audience, and I had a couple of my students share some of the work with me. ( Thanks again Paul Eitel and Brett Lemon! ) Eventually we showed it on the local public access channel. The image at the beginning was taken in July 2024 at the Vietnam War memorial in Washington D.C.
