Can We Talk 2

Back Into the Computer Age

         After much to-do, I have a new computer installed. I have replaced my Internet modem and upgraded my broadband connection. It's not perfect, but it's an improvement. I have new filters for the phones, so I have full phone service again with the broadband. Now, I have two steps left. I have to connect the printer I bought last summer to the new computer (sorting out all those wires). And to buy new Office software.

         The old hard drive with its outdated system is still good for home use, like writing. It has Office 2007 and tons of photos. I have to find a second hand monitor for it, so we can use it without the Web. I have lots of things to catch up. I want to preserve all those photos.

         I've also received recently some old photo albums from a cousin. They contain a lot of photos of people I don't know--great aunts or uncles when they were young or my grandmother's cousins. If only they had written names on the back. I can look up my research to figure out who they were, but faces without names mean nothing. There were lots of pictures of my dad as a boy and teen with his late brother or sister. And, there were letters from my grandfather in France in 1918. One letter was from 1917. Others were from the 20's from the naval shipyard in Virginia written by my dad's uncle who died young. I didn't know he was in the service, so I have to research that.

         It was a treat to read those letters to sisters and mother mostly. One complained that my great aunt Ruth had allowed some girl to see a picture Uncle Kenny had sent of some girls he met in Baltimore. The girl must have had feelings for Kenny because she got mad and wrote him a harsh letter. He wrote back to Ruth to ask, "Can't you take better care of my business back home?" I guess his sister had to be his conspirator. It struck me as funny. I was thrilled to hold a letter in my hands that was 100 years old, or almost that old in a few cases.

         That glimpse back in time made me realize future generations will not be able to do that. Who saves an e-mail or an Instagram or a Tweet? Cell phone photos, no matter how good, will be thrown out when the phone is replaced. How will they put any family history together? No letters, no paper photos. All things are on the Web which is constantly evolving.