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Sometime
in 2009, I discovered a wheel of slides that
were buried deep in the boxes and cabinets
that make up the Town's historical archives.
Not wanting to lose this valuable material
to further decay, I took the slides to a
local photomat to have them converted to
pictures and digital files. Later that year,
I found a batch of cassette tapes that
appeared to be a recorded narration for the
slides. I converted the cassettes to digital
files and began playing with them, trying to
match up the audio to the photos. Some of
the audio had already been badly corrupted.
Luckily, there were several copies of the
same narration on the various cassettes. I
spliced about 100 sections of the audio
together to make one complete and audible
track so that I could continue matching
photos to the narration. It turns out that
there are in fact two very different
"walking tours". For the last stage, I
imported both the pictures and the audio
into Microsoft MovieMaker and made two video
presentations. On April 26th, 2010, I showed
both movies during the Executive Session
break of the Town Board Meeting. The movies
are now being posted to the Town of
Wappinger website for your viewing pleasure.
I am sure that there may be a few slides
that may be in inappropriate places. Please
do not hesitate to contact me if you would
like to offer your expert input to help me
make these 100% accurate.
The first movie is called "Town and Village
Walking Tour". It is about 12 minutes long
and takes you through some of the most
historic locations in the Village of
Wappingers Falls and the Town of Wappinger.
The second movie is called "Hudson Valley
Walking Tour". The narrator describes it as
a tour of Southern Dutchess historical
sites. However, many locations are shown
that are in lower Putnam and Orange
counties.
As you will hear at the end of the "Hudson
Valley Walking Tour, the slides were
originally donated by Robert Travis and
Francis Peterson. The narrator is Dorothy
Travis. It is unknown who made the "Town and
Village Walking Tour" available. If you
recognize pictures or the voice, please let
me know.
Enjoy!
Chris Masterson
Town Clerk
Town of Wappinger
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