Today’s society is connected constantly on their phone and on their social media. Every year and every day seems to pass at a faster and faster pace. Life is rush, rush, hurry, hurry, and go, go, go.
We suggest that you try something new….. or rather try something old. Reach back to the past and reminisce with your parents and share the past with the next generation.
You’ve taken thousands of photos and untold hours of video. Time has come to update it all and make it much easier to view and share. Videos and films can be transferred to DVDs and digital files. Scrapbooks, photos and slides can be scanned and/or reprinted in books for everyone.
How about instead of sitting in front of the TV watching the latest mindless programming, pop in a DVD or plug in an external drive and watch the old movie films and video tapes of your own family.
Reminisce with your parents
You’ll be amazed at the memories that will come back.
Relish in seeing all the relatives of your past. Seeing and hearing grandma, in her old home. In the background you’ll see the wallpaper, the chairs, the lamps. Enjoy the clothes, glasses and cars that were all the rage in days gone by. Think of all the things you will learn that you didn’t know before or had forgotten.
When viewing this old media with family members who have dementia you will remind them of all sorts of people and events. Alzheimers.org states “Image association through photographs can play a key role in allowing those living with Alzheimer’s to reminisce about pleasant times in their lives, just as it can also help them to be engaged in the present moment by helping them remember the people in their lives.”
Take the time to sit down with your parents and watch DVDs and scroll through photos of the past with your parents. You know that lots and lots of stories remain in your parent’s heads that they haven’t shared with you. Looking through those old memories will churn up even more stories of things you hadn’t heard before. Don’t wait until it’s too late and they are no longer with you. At my own mother’s funeral service I heard my uncle tell about their little herd of ponies that they had and used to fund their college education. I’d never heard of this before. I challenge you to take steps to update that old media and sit down with your parents and reminisce. Don’t forget to record the conversation!
Enjoy the memories yourself
Relive that “trip of a lifetime”. Revisit the days when your kids were young and cute. Remember when you were young and in love or young and foolish.
Connect with your children
Share the photos and the stories about your ancestors with your children. Laying out photos and names in a family tree of sorts will help connect the current generation with those of the past. I was recently looking at some old photos that had been scanned from my grandfather’s collection of photos and learned that his father had been both a postal carrier and a minister in a small town in Kansas. I looked into their faces from back in the 1800’s and think I can even see a bit of resemblance. They are the people who made us who we are. They are the ones that blazed the way for us to have the future we have today.
By creating DVDs or digital files of the old home movies and family video tapes you will open up a whole past that is unknown to your children. Sometimes your children won’t show interest until they have children of their own. But when they do they will want to see themselves, their parents and their grandparents when they were their age.
Share your treasure
The other benefit of digging into that old media and modernizing it through digitization is that it is much easier and cheaper to share it with others. Once you make it digital you can make copies either inexpensively or sometimes for free. Share your treasure with your aunts, uncles, cousins and even distant cousins who share the same great grandparents.
Not everyone is the oldest of the oldest of the oldest. In my own family my mother (who was the oldest of the oldest) had one of those old colorized domed photos of the family farm where our ancestors were the first settlers. She offered it to me….but later it was un-offered and given to my brother (he is the oldest after all). I assure you that it would look much better in my home with our décor rather than his. The problem was solved once I opened my business, Leave A Legacy. I asked my mother to borrow the photo, we scanned it in and after printing and framing my own copy, I shared it with not only my children, my brothers, children, my aunts and uncles but also my great aunt who, like me, was not the oldest. From there she could share this formerly one of a kind photo with her children and grandchildren who had probably never even seen it.
Are you ready to share & reminisce about the good ‘ol days?
The first thing to do is to make all that old media accessible to play in modern media devices. That means to scan it and make it digital whether it is film, video, photos, slides, photo albums, you name it.
Leave A Legacy, Inc. is your own local memory preserving headquarters. We have the creative acumen, know-how and fancy equipment to get it done for you.