A selection of highlights from this video.
David has finished converting and uploading his late great uncle Aatto’s 8mm film footage of Wawa and surrounding areas to YouTube.
He explains that Aatto was a resident of Wawa in the 1960’s. “He filmed many community events, sporting events and some footage of visiting people. Aatto never got married. Based on what I’ve been able to determine by asking some living relatives is that he had a girlfriend at one point, but I do not know if she is in any of this footage or who most of the people are. All of this footage is a time capsule of what life was like back in the 60’s, or at least it is a snapshot of how things looked from my great uncle’s perspective.”
If you have any information about anyone or the scenes in the videos, please comment below.
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I recognized Colleen and Elvo virtanen and Frank Krompanic near the start of the video the Virtanens were in the red car and Frank was crossing the street
Loved watching these old films. Familiar people….the sales clerk in the drug store with the floral blouse, brown skirt dark hair and glasses is my Aunt, Helen Tymchuck. The man and woman (with kerchief) looking at the nail polish and getting into the red car I believe are Colleen Virtanen and her husband who was the janitor at the school for years. So cool to see Lions Beach with everyone taking swimming lessons. That dock seemed so high off the water when I took lessons there.
Kulha was the town photographer in the 50’s and 60’s. Everyone called him that. I don’t remember ever hearing his first name. He was always taking photos with the several cameras that he had hanging around his neck. He took several portraits of our family. I still have one of myself when quite young. My parents sent it to Toronto where it was enlarged, hand tinted and framed under glass.
I think the Township demolished his home on Station Road. I assume his negatives and photos were lost. There had to be boxes of them.
I remember Kulha fondly.
I recognized several people in the movies.
I will check to see if any of our family members still have the negatives and/or photos. I don’t recall exactly when, but Aatto’s 8mm films at some time in the past 10 to 15 years made their way to me. (his great nephew). I do not have any recollection of Aatto. I have a photo of myself with him from the early 70’s, but he passed away before I was able to form any memories of him.
I was born in Sault Ste Marie, but currently live in London Ontario. I have passed through Wawa a couple of times, but never stopped to see the area. After spending many hours converting the old films to digital, I am hoping to make a trip to Wawa post-pandemic to see the area. I have some other of Aatto’s films that have some shots of the Sault Ste Marie area as well that I will get uploaded to YouTube in the very near future.
I have uploaded numerous videos of Wawa footage to YouTube. They are all available for viewing now. I expect that many of them may eventually be featured in the future on the wawa-news site. The 2 videos that have been featured on Wawa-News.com so far have had roughly 300-400 views each. I am glad that I’ve been able to share this long lost history with everyone.
… David