a walk down memory lane
My significant other wanted to give her brother a special birthday gift for his 60th birthday, a milestone that I and many others have past and empathize with. We are no longer in our 50's and some of us may have felt we'd never get to 60.
So she asked his kids if there were any old super 8 movies around. Those smart enough to be able to think ahead way back then perhaps knew that someday these home movies would be a fantastic way future generations to see the people and places of their youth. So a nephew found a box with 40 or so cardboard boxes and metal reel tins in the basement. Technology being what it is today, these super 8 films can be converted to digital files and burned onto a DVD. You see this now at funerals where old photos of the deceased are played on a flat screen in the receiving room.
The lesson I wanted to get across is this: unprotected old film reels are susceptible to a mold that not only ruins the tape but no one at the conversion store will run the tape, fearing that the mold could be inhaled by the technician. It's imperative that your old super 8 film be in air tight containers.
Secondly: When viewing the DVD with other family members, some who are very old and are the last of that generation, many questions are answered. Hair color, houses lived in, relatives that are no longer here, etc etc, are just a walk down memory lane for those in attendance. It is worth every penny to have your old films converted to DVD. Whether or not you think your family would enjoy them now is irrelevant, preserving those days past when life was so different than it is today will be part of your lasting memory.
While this post may differ from the usual, the circumstances that made this happen over 60 years ago
prompts my writing. You see, the father who bought the camera and shot most of the footage knew he was dying. He died just a few years after he shot the films. The moral of the story is, preserve your past history for the generations that will follow you, it's a great walk down memory lane.
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 4:54 PM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
Great idea Jim. Even if you don't have old films, it is a reminder that you should start making them now to preserve family history. I know everyone raves about Ancestry.com and those other genealogy sites, but wouldn't it be better if we could each pass down to our kids and grandkids a history of their family from members of their family. Way better than going on some generic site that may have the information about names and dates for people in your family, but no information about what type of people they were. So much better to get the information from horses mouth as they say.
Keep posting things like this and we will have to start thinking you actually have a heart! Just kidding. Great suggestion about preserving thinks for posterity. Hope you are taking your own advice on this.
I am ... have been through every box in the attic.. can't find the reels. Even checked with the x-wife.
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