Sometimes the best old films are the ones that capture things nobody was really trying to preserve.

We came across this wonderful short film made by Dick Fisher in 1978 about the Clinton Fire Department. Fisher had recently graduated from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School and was also a member of the Clinton Fire Department during those years.

The fire department is the subject, but if you remember Clinton in the late 1970s, keep an eye on the background.

There is old Clinton everywhere.

Storefronts, signs, cars and familiar village streets keep passing through the frame. You start watching a film about the fire department and pretty soon you’re looking past the fire trucks trying to figure out which businesses you remember.

Fisher went on to a long career in film and television. Around the time this was made, he was working as a news cameraman and editor at WUTR-TV in Utica.

We’ll be sharing a few short clips from the film, especially some of those great Clinton street scenes. But the whole seven-minute film is worth watching — and this is Dick Fisher’s original upload.

How many of the old Clinton businesses and storefronts do you recognize?

Film by Dick Fisher.