It’s the
Monday after a holiday and many of us are a bit challenged to return to work
(whether our jobs or our genealogy addiction)! So, let’s just have some fun
today.
When I read
5 Nostalgic Sounds of the Technology Many People Miss, it made me wonder what are the “sounds and/or experiences of genealogy” that many people miss? I think this was reinforced by two finds this weekend in my attic (which we are cleaning out) – the remnants of an enlarger that my dad and I used to use to develop our own photos and film canisters that I subsequently used as storage containers for small items like pins.
So much has
changed since many of us started researching our ancestors! Ignoring some feeble research attempts in high
school (typed on onion skin paper!), my real addiction started in 1987 and boy
has our world changed a lot since then.
There is a
lot of technology that we now use where we couldn’t use what didn’t exist back
in the day.
With that in mind, I started a list of some bits of nostalgia – some of it’s nostalgic sounds and others are just how we used to do things that are quickly becoming passé (if not already obsolete).
- Typing (yes on a typewriter) letters to far off archives (sometimes just to the next state over)
- Centralized wall-mounted phone ringing as you waited for a call back from an archive or clerk or potential cousin?
- No answering machines and that continuous ringing to tell you that no-one was going to answer
- Hiring a translator or using a print edition of a foreign language dictionary (vs using Google Translate et al)
- Tearing a stamp off of a block of them, licking them (no self-stick) and putting them on envelopes
- The puzzled look of a postal clerk when you asked for an IRC (International Reply Coupon)
- Photo film-based cameras – the sound of popping the film canister (and the smell of fresh film), loading the film in the camera, shooting your photos, getting to some place to develop your film (which often took a week or more), and then finally getting your pictures and negatives to find out you took some horrible photos!
- Driving to the LDS to order microfilm, waiting for a postcard (or similar notification that it had arrived) and going back to visit again – taking handwritten notes (no cameras, no laptops, netbooks, no copy machines, nada!)
- Sending a money order for a purchase (no credit cards accepted, no paypal)
- Using tape recorders with actual buttons (and their distinctive sounds) for stop/pause, forward, fast forward, reverse, etc
- and so much more ...
What would you add
to the list?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
copyright ©
National Genealogical Society, 3108 Columbia Pike, Suite 300, Arlington,
Virginia 22204-4370. http://www.ngsgenealogy.org.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Want to
learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with
Upfront with NGS Blog posts!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NGS does not
imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this
blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not
necessarily reflect the view of NGS.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Republication
of UpFront articles is permitted and encouraged for
non-commercial purposes without express permission from NGS. Please drop us a
note telling us where and when you are using the article. Express written
permission is required if you wish to republish UpFront articles
for commercial purposes. You may send a request for express written permission
to [email protected]. All
republished articles may not be edited or reworded and must contain the
copyright statement found at the bottom of each UpFront article.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Think your
friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post
interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with
NGS posts or subscribe!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Suggestions
for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please
send any suggested topics to [email protected]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unless
indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by
Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.
No comments:
Post a Comment