Do you take videos on your phone? On your DSLR camera or camcorder? Special events like weddings and baby’s first steps are the usual topics – but what about that quick video of a special friend, family get-together or just ordinary kids playing in the newly fallen snow?
And who has super 8 movies, VHS tapes, cassette tapes? Or let’s just talk about inherited ancestry photos of great-great grandparents.
Who knows what prompted me, but when my grandfather was 82 years old and the last of my grandparents living, I pulled out my clunky tape recorder, popped in a cassette and started recording. I asked him about his childhood years learning he was born the 4th boy in the family in a one-room, half-dugout, half soddy home in Indian Territory, later known as Oklahoma. He shared such amazing details and insights to their world – I loved it.
And in the middle of the tape, my two little boys came running up to me close enough to the tape recorder that their quick and exuberant conversation got recorded.
Many years later, I came across that cassette tape, played it and transcribed it. Then I knew how fragile the tape could be, especially after multiple moves in my life. So I took it to a home studio person who converted it to an audio CD. It was amazing how much clearer the sound was (I could even fill in the blanks on the transcript with words I previously couldn’t understand).
But what really hit me was how it was the only grandparent whose voice I had preserved. And it was the only short spurt of hearing the voices of my sons as children – they are now full grown.
That original cassette and the CD are very precious to me now. I have them in a metal box but I know that is not safe enough. And what if whomever cleans out my house after I am gone does not realize what they are and their value?
Then as I became acquainted with FOREVER and all the services they had, I realized that there was a very special part of their tools I needed – it was the permanent digital home for this cassette’s contents, protected and saved for over 100 years sharing my grandfather’s stories for generations to come.
And another valuable treasure showed up recently – I had forgotten that many years ago I used my DSLR camera to record my precious 4-year old granddaughter who loved sitting on a stool in my flower garden leaning over to talk to a statue of a young girl looking into a wishing well. She poured dirt in the well and I interviewed her about what she was doing and who was the girl (in the statue) – she was an “angel” she told me.
You guessed it – that little girl is now about to graduate from high school. Her mother and I recently sat and viewed that precious video with her sweet child voice which was so clear. Yes, memories flooding us and tears streaming. Absolutely, it is in my FOREVER permanent storage account (owned, not rented) and guaranteed to be migrated to new digital formats over time so they can be enjoyed far into the future.
While I was delighted to hear my grandfather’s stories at the time of the recording – and experience my granddaughter’s enchanting little voice explaining about the angel – the second time of viewing and hearing them years later is a rich, rich joy.
There is another type of “second chance” that many don’t get to have – and I share this from FOREVER’s blog as an important illustration.
The author, Brenda, shared how wonderful her wedding day was in 1996. The pictures were great but the video was even better because of the fun scenes from the rehearsal, the whole ceremony and despite it not being the best quality, she was so happy to have it.
Over the next years, she made many Creative Memories albums, including the wedding album, and then albums of her boys’ pictures along with videos of their first steps, great times on vacation, and so much more.
Then in 2007, she had been out with the boys and returned home to fire trucks surrounding their property. While they were out, their home had burned to the ground. Everything they owned was gone. At that moment, she was just glad they had not been home when it happened.
In the aftermath, they were able to pull out several burned scrapbooks. Some were gone forever but ones more protected in the middle of shelves somewhat survived. Good friends spent days with her peeling scorched and soaked photos out of the albums, drying them and doing their best to rescue them. It took years to reclaim some of the photos. But not one of her videos survived.
There was no digital photo storage in 2007, but she admits she is not sure that if there was, she would have thought it important enough to use. She emphasizes how differently she views this now.
But as second chances go, she experienced a special one. As she visited her brother and his family, they discussed FOREVER which she said they often do. Her sister-in-law has a lot of videos of her kids when younger and they began discussing that. Brenda mentioned how much she missed her videos and wished she had that wedding video especially.
The sister-in-law jumped up and ran out of the room coming back moments later holding an 8mm tape. It was a copy of Brenda’s wedding video! They had used her camera on the wedding day and she had a copy of it all these years but had only recently found it. She forgot Brenda had lost hers in the fire 12 years ago.
As Brenda recounts, she quickly bought a FOREVER conversion box and sent the 8mm tape to have it converted to a digital format. After 12 years of thinking she would never see it again, she says it was wonderful to relive that day – blurry moments and all! Tears and laughter as they watched it in her FOREVER account post-digitization. She noted that her kids, who aren’t so little now, got to see what their dad and she looked like on that day and see lots of other family members who are no longer with us.
Where are your videos, audios, precious photos that can’t be replaced? What’s your plan for them to be able to enjoy them yourself and preserve special ones for the future? And what one of us has not thought about the fact fire or other disasters can gobble up those precious items in a heartbeat?
But the most important question is not HAVE you thought about it, but what are you going to do about it?
Truth time – I am still locating and converting – but I know my plan. I want to have all the treasured videos & audios (I don’t have many videos so this includes all of them) converted and in my FOREVER permanent storage as quickly as I can make it happen. Plus my inherited ancestry photos.
Yes, you can check it out for yourself – HERE is my link to the FOREVER information. (And if you are new to FOREVER, click on the “sign in” tab and get a free account which gives you a $20 gift certificate). Poke around and feel free to contact me with any questions.
We never know if we will get second chances!
