My 97 year old grama recently moved out of the house she had
lived in for 60 years, so I got the chance to dig through the closets upstairs.
She saved a LOT of stuff, which is both good and bad.
Bad because it's in no sort of organized order. I found some special photographs and documents in the middle of a pile of Christmas cards from her friends. And who has the time to leaf through every page of her stuff to find the treasures?
Good because I took a lot of hand-written journals, letters, etc. home to scan and share with the extended family. And some artwork from her 3 sons, maybe even her grandchildren.
Bad because it's in no sort of organized order. I found some special photographs and documents in the middle of a pile of Christmas cards from her friends. And who has the time to leaf through every page of her stuff to find the treasures?
Good because I took a lot of hand-written journals, letters, etc. home to scan and share with the extended family. And some artwork from her 3 sons, maybe even her grandchildren.
Now that I have my own child and a house full of things I
just can't throw away, I'm thinking about this- 60 years in the future, how
much crap will I have accumulated? What precious treasures from my son should I
hold on to and what should I throw away?
I like the idea of scanning, saving and backing up. We are already in the habit of doing this with our photos and video on the computer. I could scan the kid's artwork and save it along with the photos. But it's not the same as having the original.
Grama had a few photo albums and scrap books of photos that were really well labeled with who the photos are of and the dates and locations. But- the boxes of photos of random people in the 1940s- no one knows who the people are, even though they are cool photos to look at and you hate to throw those away! It's just like how the photos on our computer are saved in chronological order but have no notes to say where we were and who were were with.
Maybe that's what Facebook is for?
I would say these days most people are "archiving" their memories with Facebook- but I seriously doubt that in sixty years, we'll be able to access those tagged photos as easily as we can today. Genealogy data is important to save for future generations, and so are photos, video and even kid's artwork. But there are so many more photos and hours of video of today's kids vs. the kids of the 1940s-50s!
We just need to find the fine line between preserving the precious things and getting rid of the unnecessary crap.
But, when something has been held on to for 60, 80, even 100 years- who is the asshole in the family responsible for tossing it out?
It's a hard call to make.
I like the idea of scanning, saving and backing up. We are already in the habit of doing this with our photos and video on the computer. I could scan the kid's artwork and save it along with the photos. But it's not the same as having the original.
Grama had a few photo albums and scrap books of photos that were really well labeled with who the photos are of and the dates and locations. But- the boxes of photos of random people in the 1940s- no one knows who the people are, even though they are cool photos to look at and you hate to throw those away! It's just like how the photos on our computer are saved in chronological order but have no notes to say where we were and who were were with.
Maybe that's what Facebook is for?
I would say these days most people are "archiving" their memories with Facebook- but I seriously doubt that in sixty years, we'll be able to access those tagged photos as easily as we can today. Genealogy data is important to save for future generations, and so are photos, video and even kid's artwork. But there are so many more photos and hours of video of today's kids vs. the kids of the 1940s-50s!
We just need to find the fine line between preserving the precious things and getting rid of the unnecessary crap.
But, when something has been held on to for 60, 80, even 100 years- who is the asshole in the family responsible for tossing it out?
It's a hard call to make.
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