Save Those Memories On Paper

Hayden Hollingsworth
Hayden Hollingsworth

If you have been traveling and using hotel facilities, I suspect you have noticed the 300 pound TV lodged in the massive chest has been replaced by the ever-so-sleek thirty-inch flat screen.  My question is this:  What happened to the thousands of serviceable sets that have been removed?

I called my local purveyor of electronics who told me there is a recycling system in Salem for old TVs, but the many of them go into the landfill.  There’s a problem for you.  These sets have significant amounts of toxic stuff in them that will eventually get into the ground water and who knows when we will be seeing two-headed frogs?

There’s an attractive alternative for those who will have Santa delivering your new home theater with its 72 inch screen.  Before you have it arrive tell the merchant you want to donate your old set to a worthwhile site.  There are any number of these and if you need suggestions, think of Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity, The Rescue Mission, The Salvation Army, Roanoke Area Ministries, or smaller churches that might need a good set for their youth program.  It is possible, although I hope unlikely, that the delivery service may balk at the idea of the trip.  Offer to accompany them, or at least get them to load the old set in your car.  A ruptured lumbar disk may be in your Yuletide plans if you try this by yourself.  Pick up the tax deduction form but don’t fill in the price of your new set; make it something believable, else your friendly IRS agent may be viewing some shows with you while you explain your charitable contributions.

The new set will surely be equipped with the latest recording devices; TiVo, DVR, and who knows what else.  That brings me to my second holiday suggestion.  Remember when your big recording decision was VHS vs. BetaMax, cassette vs. 8 track?  Good luck on getting those players repaired which leaves you out of luck if that’s how you have stored entertainment.  In my experience, I have saved for posterity only two TV programs that are of historical importance, so it’s not a problem for me, but photography is.

As a semi-professional photographer, I have thousands upon thousands of pictures stored on my computer.  The day will come when new computers will not be able to read those files.  What to do?  I have 35 mm slides from by parents a half century ago.  One burned-out projector bulb and there would be a lot of holding them up to the light.  What was once state of the art is now worthless.

It took me a while to abandon print cameras and move to digital.  I finally packed up 5 very expensive SLRs with their lenses and moved into the digital age.  You can’t beat it for convenience and on-the-spot entertainment.  This past weekend I took hundreds of shots of the grandchildren, each followed by choruses of “Let me see!  Let me see!”  I did let them see. . . then deleted about 90 percent of them.  The remainder I will put in a digital album and send to their parents.  In return, we will receive at some time in the next year a DVD of all their school plays, birthdays, and trips to the beach, all set to music.

This is all wonderful while the technology to play it still survives, but rest assured it won’t . . . Unless you have prints you won’t be looking at the wondrous sight of Christmas mornings a half century from now when such memories bring a mixture of smiles and tears.

In 1939, my parents made an attempt to record Christmas Eve and the joys of Santa’s offerings the following day.  The only photographic technique available was to screw a flash bulb into a lamp, open the shutter, and turn on the lamp with the instantaneous illumination.  Unfortunately, the lamp was already on when my dad inserted the bulb which ignited with a thousand degree flash for his fingers.  When we finally got the picture my sister and I were a glum looking pair in front of the socks we had hung by the chimney with care.  I do have the picture of the fire truck that Santa could not possibly have gotten down the chimney, leading me to ask questions that required a truthful answer.  Christmas was never quite the same, but I have the pictures which stir memories of how blessed we were.

Make some prints.  When you’re as old as I, if you rely on equipment you will have only your memory which will be a pale comparison to the photo album you take the time to prepare.

In my experience, mothers generally are better at this than dads.  Men like technology but not the tedium of collecting the results.  Get it done, nonetheless; you and your children will be glad you did.

By Hayden Hollingsworth
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