Old Friends, Version Whatever
Mar. 4th, 2009 10:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogI know I've used that header before, referring to seeing Simon & Garfunkel almost five years ago, and to at least a couple of friendships among at least a couple of you. Tonight, I've been taken back to the 70s once again, once to one of the dearest and oldest friends I have, again to another enduring friendship from that era which I didn't get to know until recently.
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A few months ago, I was rooting around in a box of old receipts and such, and came upon a treasure trove of old pictures and other memorabilia, most of it passed to me by my mom, probably in the late 80s. Some were toddler-to-high-school-era pictures of me, but lots were of my older sibs and of other relatives and family friends I remembered barely, if at all. Few had names on them, fewer still identified further by date or place. Since my sister was more likely to remember most of these, I brought the box with me when I visited last week, and she's been busily annotating and scrapbooking them ever since.
A few, I hung onto, because I knew I'd remember their subject, or time, or place, better than she. This one fits all three of those categories:
The time was June 1976. The place, about 70 feet away from where I grew up. The honoree, surrounded by her parents (who still live there), is the first neighbor my age I remember meeting, and playing with along our back fence, and remaining friends with for virtually all of the almost 45 years since then. In the past few years, she's become close friends with Eleanor, almost entirely through email, but with a bond of family-love and motherhood and faith and home that I see in my own beloved as much as I did along that fence, ages ago. I'll be sending T. the original of that snapshot, but wanted to preserve the moment here for my own memories of what a dear and loving friend she's always been.
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From the same era of Analog Memory Preservation comes my other gem of the night. Over the weekend, Gail asked if I knew how to transfer a cassette tape to CD. In theory, I did and do, but I vanted to eggs-periment first, so I tried one of my own commercial cassettes (we still have hundreds of 'em in those wooden wall-size holders in the cellar) and it seemed to digitize and burn okay, so last night, Gail gave me the object of her own heart's desire:
A cassette that Lois made for her playing a sacred song on the piano. The only recording of Lois's music she has. On a 60-minute Scotch brand cassette, bearing a handwritten date of 1978.
The basic Windows Sound Recorder didn't do it justice, so I just downloaded something called Digitope that seemed to do a better job. Tomorrow, I shall take it through the rest of its paces, and if I get permission to keep, and if granted to share, a copy of this music, I will do so here. I felt a combination of awe, and honor to hold something so precious in my hand, and not a little fear of broken magnetic tape (so far so good, thankfully), and when I place the finished product in Gail's hand come Sunday, the awesome and honored parts will grow even more.
----
A few months ago, I was rooting around in a box of old receipts and such, and came upon a treasure trove of old pictures and other memorabilia, most of it passed to me by my mom, probably in the late 80s. Some were toddler-to-high-school-era pictures of me, but lots were of my older sibs and of other relatives and family friends I remembered barely, if at all. Few had names on them, fewer still identified further by date or place. Since my sister was more likely to remember most of these, I brought the box with me when I visited last week, and she's been busily annotating and scrapbooking them ever since.
A few, I hung onto, because I knew I'd remember their subject, or time, or place, better than she. This one fits all three of those categories:
The time was June 1976. The place, about 70 feet away from where I grew up. The honoree, surrounded by her parents (who still live there), is the first neighbor my age I remember meeting, and playing with along our back fence, and remaining friends with for virtually all of the almost 45 years since then. In the past few years, she's become close friends with Eleanor, almost entirely through email, but with a bond of family-love and motherhood and faith and home that I see in my own beloved as much as I did along that fence, ages ago. I'll be sending T. the original of that snapshot, but wanted to preserve the moment here for my own memories of what a dear and loving friend she's always been.
----
From the same era of Analog Memory Preservation comes my other gem of the night. Over the weekend, Gail asked if I knew how to transfer a cassette tape to CD. In theory, I did and do, but I vanted to eggs-periment first, so I tried one of my own commercial cassettes (we still have hundreds of 'em in those wooden wall-size holders in the cellar) and it seemed to digitize and burn okay, so last night, Gail gave me the object of her own heart's desire:
A cassette that Lois made for her playing a sacred song on the piano. The only recording of Lois's music she has. On a 60-minute Scotch brand cassette, bearing a handwritten date of 1978.
The basic Windows Sound Recorder didn't do it justice, so I just downloaded something called Digitope that seemed to do a better job. Tomorrow, I shall take it through the rest of its paces, and if I get permission to keep, and if granted to share, a copy of this music, I will do so here. I felt a combination of awe, and honor to hold something so precious in my hand, and not a little fear of broken magnetic tape (so far so good, thankfully), and when I place the finished product in Gail's hand come Sunday, the awesome and honored parts will grow even more.