Milestones and Memories

 My dear friend, Loretta Wilson, just celebrated a milestone birthday and her husband, Dave, threw her a party. The Wilsons and the Carlbergs go back a long way so, of course, Rick and I had to go! ! It has been years since we made the 60 mile trek (each way) into deepest Illinois but at one time we did it regularly. Back in the early 1990s, our children were best friends. We lived close together and attended the same church. The kids attended the same grade school, played and got into trouble together (especially the boys!) In September 1994, the day before my birthday, we moved into our current home in Wisconsin. The Wilsons drove up from Illinois to celebrate my birthday with an unpacking party and cake. Now those are special friends!

Dave's invitation said, "no gifts", but we couldn't go completely empty handed. I looked back at the photos and videos I had from our adventures together. As luck would have it, one of the videos I had digitized by Forever had about 8 minutes of video dated December 23rd, 1990. I downloaded it to my computer and edited the footage down to about 4 minutes, then I added some still photos and made a slide show for Loretta, using Animoto. The video involved the adults sitting in the downstairs family room discussing home remodeling while the kids were upstairs watching Jaws 3. The girls would have been 10 and the boys 8. Between the melodramatic soundtrack and the children staring at the tv screen, from behind blankets and pillows, it made for some classic footage! Then it cut back to the grownups still laughing downstairs. I wonder whether the movie would have been considered suitable these days! I put the Animoto video on to a flash drive for Loretta to keep and share. 

The video was just a small part of one of the mini VHS tapes we found in the basement. I had them all digitized and they now live safely in my Forever storage. A lot of the videos were rather forgettable- opening presents at Christmas or the landscape flashing by on an endless train journey. What makes the modest cost completely worth it is footage like this. What would you give to see a glimpse of the past?  Some of the Christmas footage includes my mother. Another 10 minutes shows a party with a group of old friends who are mostly gone now. I just sent in some 8mm film labelled 1964, which may contain video of my husband's (very short) Little League career! We will see if there is anything left on the film after all this time. Because that's the thing-film gets dried up and brittle, VHS tapes are magnetic and the images eventually fade away, thumb drives and CDs deteriorate and become unplayable.  I am looking at replacing my 11 year old computer because Windows 10 won't be supported after October. It's a real problem, keeping up with changing platforms and formats!  

Forever is one answer. As part of the Forever guarantee, if formats change, they will migrate your media to the new format!  Just think how formats have changed in just the last 40 years!  When I started my business, I followed the Shoot and Burn model, like most beginners. I gave my clients the jpegs on a CD. Not only is that a fragile magnetic medium, but most computers these days don't have a reader. My new computer probably won't have one. This generation takes more photos than ever, thanks to cell phones, but digital photographs are ephemeral; they are only as good as the effort we put into keeping them.  Preserving memories is my passion, the "Why" of my business if you like. That's why I am doing my best to stay ahead of the curve, keeping up with technology and helping my clients preserve their memories old and new.