Treasure Island

Treasure Island was Originally Posted on August 8, 2010 by

I read in the news today about a company called “Legacy Locker”, who fro a small fee, will store away your online documents and items, just as you would with a safe deposit box for actual items. One example was domain names. The guy owned them, however in his demise, how would his wife get control of them. He could store the passwords and information away. What about his blogs? They may be online now and in search engines, which could change. They might not be earth-shattering documents yet the family might want to have them. Old photos, profiles and yes, even the farm in “Farmville” where the deceased spent time, could be preserved. This might just be what the world needs.

Then there is my case.

When I moved to Hawaii, I brought much stuff; not furniture but things I cherished and it turns out, things I didn’t but thought I did. I threw out a lot, yet still managed to find things I wished I had left in the mainland landfill.

Six or seven years later I still have boxes I have not yet opened because I just don’t have places to put things. I just have too much stuff. In my defense, I was working hard to ready the house and move. I steam cleaned the house and driveway, painted the house and trim, replaced the siding near the chimney, patched a hole in the roof, replaced a door sill, took down all the massive curtains, shampooed all the rugs, removed the satellite dish and wiring, cut down some trees, readied two cars to sell, held yard sales and packed everything in the house. Some of this was done while I was working a 40-hour a week job.

When I moved into that house, my company relocated me and paid for the moving van, thus I just moved everything. When I went to make this move to Hawaii, I was so out of time that I just packed things and sent them on their way. Some of this is documented in the first blog entries here.

So now I am overloaded with lots of stuff that I don’t really need nor have time to sort. Even if sorted, the items have no place as you may know, I moved from a 5 bedroom house to a two bedroom house with little storage. It is a common problem for people as they grow older; they perhaps start “cleaning house” for a move to a smaller house, to move to an apartment or perhaps to move in with their children.

So then I look at this idea of a digital vault and wonder if it will be a Godsend or another attic or basement to fill with useless stuff. The old adage “One persons trash is another persons treasure”.

I love to jump on the bandwagon with new technology, yet have to think that what I have written, what I have saved, what I think is important, is really just junk to others. My Mom is kind of the same way. As she got older, I too jumped on the genealogy bandwagon and entered part of our family tree. Ours is a bit complicated with a grandparent’s remarriage and two families with very similar names marrying. I still don’t have the best picture of the tree and so far my nephews and great-nephews don’t care much about the history.

So I debate the issue with myself. I know that I wanted to know a bit about my family tree and having that documented for me would make things easier all around. Yet I have thousands of photos of sunsets here in Hawaii that although may be good, are just flashes of memories in my time and may not serve any personal purpose for others?

My Mother had an elderly neighbor who was born in Germany. She often lamented about the “old country” and the beautiful meadows and towns; all of the good times she had there. My Mother finally (I guess in fear of another long lament) that this woman only lived in Germany for something like 14 years! Perhaps these memories were all the woman had, but in the grand scheme of things, they were a flash in the pan of this woman’s life. Is this why some people photograph every little thing and collect bits of information; in the event it becomes important later on. Are we so self-centered that we think that every part of every minute of our lives is important and should be saved?

In my case, yes, probably :-) Sorry, you thought I was going in another direction, didn’t you?

One of the items I saved, that ended up being shipped to Hawaii was an old utility bill. I was renting a room to a guy who ended up moving out and stiffing me for hundreds of dollars of rent and utility bills. I wanted to remember his name and still look to see if he shows up in Google searches. He knows he owes me money and maybe I could get some back.

I have a video tape made from an old 8mm movie my dad took of the building of the first house I remember living in. Google Earth shows the outside of the house has not changed much at all in 60 years. I enjoy watching the video on occasion. Would it be interesting to the person who now lives there? Perhaps, but I doubt I will ever get time to make a copy and send it. I don’t know the name of the people living there, however I do know the address :-)

We save yearbooks and make scrapbooks and take movies and photos to pass along information to the future and as I say, some will find it trash and some will find it treasure. It will be up to future generations to decide.