ruk.blog

Seventy years ago, the same decade that gave us Kodachrome film and the development of 8mm film, Amerlia Earhart disappeared somewhere over the Pacific.  They have found tantalizing clues over the years about what may have happened to her and Fred Noonan, her navigator, but the mystery remains. (Read article: CNN)

And this got me to thinking — while we ponder over the mysteries left by others, we rarely realize that if we’re not careful, we’ll leave our own mysteries behind for future generations. 

I have a boxful of old family films at my house that my father took of me growing up.  I also have a stash of videotapes of my daughter when she was born.   I’m lucky that I have a business that converts all of these to a digital format.  But as I’m going through all the conversions, I’m realizing that both my dad and I could have labeled the original reels and tapes with a lot more detail.   Fortunately, I’m still around and can fill in the blanks so the final DVDs will have all the right info on them — no mystery for anyone down the road who wants to watch them.  
 
Maybe we’ll find out someday what happened to Amelia.   Today, we have cell phones, camera phones, GPS, wireless connections — she couldn’t disappear now without a trace even if she wanted to.    In the meantime, I’m making sure all my old-format family movies and photo prints are transferred to digital and then, clearly labeled and identified — date, time, event, subject, location.