It really is. My great-grandfather was born in 1898 and died in 1999. He almost lived in three different centuries. He rode a horse and buggy in his youth and played Windows Solitaire in his later years.
Same for my Great-Grandfather, but it was much more than that when I look at his life.
Went from horse and buggies and steam trains, lived through 2 world wars, saw rural electrification - 1930s for him - bring lights and washing machines and telephones, survived his own pandemic - Spanish Flu 1918-1919, saw the invention of automobiles, radios, and TVs, heavier than air flight, the Great Depression, the beginnings of the digital world, and watched the Moon Landings with me sitting in his favorite chair in our living room.
When he died, no one really knew how old he was - there was no official record of his birth certificate since he was born at home in a very rural area. While I’m old myself now and have seen some few changes, I cannot fathom the sheer number of societal upheavals and disruptions he went through every decade of his life.
Well, let’s see. Depending on your age, you were alive when JFK was assassinated. You watched the moon landing. You were alive during the Vietnam War. You remember 9/11, the Great Recession, and the spread of Facebook. You were alive when America elected its first Black president. You witnessed the explosion of technology, namely, smart phones. You’ve driven on roads alongside self-driving electric vehicles. You survived an international pandemic. You have access to the largest library of human knowledge to ever exist. If you’d like to, you can have a decent conversation with something pretending to be human.
I’d say you’ve lived through a decent chunk of history as well.
Everyone lives through history. But few live to see so many wrenching changes as his generation did. The best I can say I lived through was the beginning of the internet and the inter-connection of every person on the planet.
I remember on New Years Eve 1999 the local newspaper ran an article that was interviewing people who’d been alive for the last turn of the century and comparing the two New Years’ celebrations. In hindsight I wish 10 year old me had had the presence of mind to save it, it was pretty neat.
I have a recording of interviews I did with all my living grandparents for a school project when I was a kid. One thing that stood out was the level of abject poverty they experienced. They were teenagers during the great depression and it definitely had a major impact on all of them.
Would you be willing to digitize that recording and upload it to the Internet Archive for preservation? You certainly don’t have to add the link here, but I believe it would be a wonderful thing for the next generations to watch one day.
I love watching old restored footage so I can vicariously experience that moment in time and reflect on how far humanity has progressed.
I love this idea! I have videos of my grandparents where my dad interviews them about their lives. And then one of my dad when we interviewed him about his life after he was diagnosed with cancer. Can’t really bear to watch that one but some day I should save them online somewhere. I like the idea of them being part of an archive and part of searchable history fo future generations
I think it’s a noble thing to preserve these digital recordings. It’s tough, because they’re the individual person’s memories. But long after we’re dead and our names and lives are forgotten, it would be an important artifact for our future generations to have access to.
Now I’m thinking about all the old VHS tapes my parents have. If they haven’t already degraded, I’m going to ask for those tapes and see what it costs to digitize them myself.
It really is. My great-grandfather was born in 1898 and died in 1999. He almost lived in three different centuries. He rode a horse and buggy in his youth and played Windows Solitaire in his later years.
Same for my Great-Grandfather, but it was much more than that when I look at his life.
Went from horse and buggies and steam trains, lived through 2 world wars, saw rural electrification - 1930s for him - bring lights and washing machines and telephones, survived his own pandemic - Spanish Flu 1918-1919, saw the invention of automobiles, radios, and TVs, heavier than air flight, the Great Depression, the beginnings of the digital world, and watched the Moon Landings with me sitting in his favorite chair in our living room.
When he died, no one really knew how old he was - there was no official record of his birth certificate since he was born at home in a very rural area. While I’m old myself now and have seen some few changes, I cannot fathom the sheer number of societal upheavals and disruptions he went through every decade of his life.
Well, let’s see. Depending on your age, you were alive when JFK was assassinated. You watched the moon landing. You were alive during the Vietnam War. You remember 9/11, the Great Recession, and the spread of Facebook. You were alive when America elected its first Black president. You witnessed the explosion of technology, namely, smart phones. You’ve driven on roads alongside self-driving electric vehicles. You survived an international pandemic. You have access to the largest library of human knowledge to ever exist. If you’d like to, you can have a decent conversation with something pretending to be human.
I’d say you’ve lived through a decent chunk of history as well.
Everyone lives through history. But few live to see so many wrenching changes as his generation did. The best I can say I lived through was the beginning of the internet and the inter-connection of every person on the planet.
I remember on New Years Eve 1999 the local newspaper ran an article that was interviewing people who’d been alive for the last turn of the century and comparing the two New Years’ celebrations. In hindsight I wish 10 year old me had had the presence of mind to save it, it was pretty neat.
I have a recording of interviews I did with all my living grandparents for a school project when I was a kid. One thing that stood out was the level of abject poverty they experienced. They were teenagers during the great depression and it definitely had a major impact on all of them.
Would you be willing to digitize that recording and upload it to the Internet Archive for preservation? You certainly don’t have to add the link here, but I believe it would be a wonderful thing for the next generations to watch one day.
I love watching old restored footage so I can vicariously experience that moment in time and reflect on how far humanity has progressed.
I love this idea! I have videos of my grandparents where my dad interviews them about their lives. And then one of my dad when we interviewed him about his life after he was diagnosed with cancer. Can’t really bear to watch that one but some day I should save them online somewhere. I like the idea of them being part of an archive and part of searchable history fo future generations
I think it’s a noble thing to preserve these digital recordings. It’s tough, because they’re the individual person’s memories. But long after we’re dead and our names and lives are forgotten, it would be an important artifact for our future generations to have access to.
Now I’m thinking about all the old VHS tapes my parents have. If they haven’t already degraded, I’m going to ask for those tapes and see what it costs to digitize them myself.