Her story, town's history
By Joey Pitchford
Published in News on November 15, 2017 5:50 AM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Betsy Smith, daughter of Oscar Turlington, speaks after the viewing of some of her father's old films Tuesday night at Fremont United Methodist Church.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
The film that depicts life in Fremont in the '30s and '40s is projected onto a screen Tuesday night at Fremont United Methodist. The film was taken by Oscar Turlington, a former mayor of the town.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
A photo of Oscar Turlington is displayed on a table next to a photo of his children and grandchildren and a box of his old film reels.
FREMONT -- Betsy Smith watched as images from her past played out on a screen.
The film, taken from 20 rolls shot by her father, Oscar Turlington, in the 1930s, '40s and '50s, was displayed at the Fremont United Methodist Church Tuesday evening, as part of the Wayne County Public Library's ongoing effort to digitize and preserve historical footage from around the county.
Known as Reel-to-Real, the program is comprised of a series of video showings featuring preserved footage donated to the library by Wayne County residents.
On Tuesday, the footage in question was Turlington's. A former mayor, fire chief and business owner in Fremont, Turlington shot both color and black-and-white footage, capturing the ebb and flow of daily life all over town mixed in with his own home videos.
Smith was very young at the time of the filming. She said she did not remember many of the people depicted there, but was glad the footage existed.
"This is history," she said with a smile. "It makes you appreciate things a little more."
The footage told a story of quintessential small-town life, with kids swimming and fishing while men in suits and women in summer dresses walked down main street and greeted each other. Local kids played baseball and congregated outside the school, dozens of them holding red balloons and rehearsing in a marching band.
In one of her brief on-screen appearances, a very young Smith chased a small kitten and picked it up, only to nearly step on another kitten in the process. The video captured some of Turlington's other five daughters as well, showing the girls jumping rope, roller skating and generally having a good time together.
One scene even captured winter in Fremont, with kids romping around a town coated in a thick layer of snow, before transitioning to warmer weather and what appeared to be a freshly trimmed bed of colorful spring flowers.
Turlington was also present at the 1947 Goldsboro Centennial celebration parade, where he filmed the procession of elaborate floats and horse-drawn buggies as they moved down the street.
Marty Tschetter, local history librarian, first received the film from Fremont Alderman Leon Mooring, Smith's brother-in-law. He told Tschetter about the old films he had stored away, and Tschetter jumped at the opportunity to add them to a growing collection of digitized footage.
"Digitization in general, there's a lot of initiative in that area," he said. "The thing about original video and sound recordings, they reveal layers to life. This color is incredible, I mean this is 60-year-old film."
Tschetter said that film and sound recordings are a particularly powerful kind of media. Historical recordings can allow people to reconnect with people who have long since died.
"It's really powerful, especially to hear the voice of a deceased person," Tschetter said.
The Reel-to-Real program has been a largely grassroots, low-budget effort, Tschetter said, mostly involving either going out and finding footage around the county himself or having it donated.
Tschetter then digitizes the film, scanning it through a computer to permanently encode the contents. After that, he watches through all of the footage, taking notes as he goes and marking down particularly interesting scenes.
After all of that, Tschetter said, he can edit together a video like the one shown Tuesday to an audience of around 40 people.
The program figures to continue. Tschetter said he is working on digitizing old footage of football games at Rosewood High School, with more in the works after that.
"Eventually, I want to represent all of Wayne County this way," he said. "Grantham, Rosewood, I've seen a few things from Mount Olive, all of these communities have their own history."