Future Memories
Your history in the making.
Photography by Red Mango Design and Photography.
When I was a little girl, one of my favourite things was going through Mum’s old photo albums. I could spend hours staring at the smiling girl, often in her beautiful dancing costumes, watching the years pass in the seemingly short space of the albums’ pages. Often, Mum would tell stories about pantomimes, Moomba parades, competitions and the few “yet-to-be” celebrities in her class. It was like entering a fantasy world.
Most kids love flipping through photo albums. Whether it’s the fascination of seeing their parents as kids just like them or simply laughing at the funny fashions, toys, cars and hairstyles, the family album forms a connection between generations, and the perfect opportunity to share stories from the past. Rather like sitting around the campfire of old, listening to the oral histories of the elders, there’s something inherently tribal and human about it.
With new technologies such as digital cameras, smartphones and Web 2.0, it is easier and cheaper to capture and share our photos and stories than ever before. Yet how many of us have actually created that photo album, scrapbook or journal? Mine seems to be forever pushed down the “To Do” list. How much easier it is to upload digital photos to Flickr, post a comment on Facebook or write a blog. We tell ourselves that the internet is “forever”, without really stopping to think about how hard it might be to find that information in 1, 5 or 50 years. Will that application still exist? Will the data format be the same? Will the host computer still be running?
Paper-based records have certainly stood the test of time. Our libraries and museums display documents dating back hundreds, even thousands of years. Similarly, we know much about the lifestyles of ancient civilisations by the objects and textiles that have been stored carefully in tombs, discarded in middens or buried in ruins.
Things are changing so rapidly in our society today, that even our parents’ era is alien to our kids – there was life before the internet, Nintendo DS and iPhones? More importantly, connection with our ancestors helps us find our place in society. Names and dates on historical records do not replace a letter, journal or photograph that give us an insight into the personality and “human-ness” of those gone before.
If we want our descendants to know about us, and our lives, we need to start keeping records – NOW!
Journals
There is nothing quite like the experience of keeping a journal – of the feel of pen on paper and the personal space it offers to think, dream, reflect and create. In today’s busy life it is a rare luxury, but it’s a bit like going to the gym. It takes a while to get going, but once you do, you never regret it.
Encouraging your children to keep a journal is a gift that can last a lifetime. Even very small children can participate, providing the illustrations for the stories and events in their lives, while their adult helper(s) write the words. The journal of a small child becomes an extension of a baby book, capturing the funny sayings, milestones and special events of their lives.
Older children will probably prefer to do it themselves, and may love to use their journal to develop their inventions, dream about the future and record their friendships, as well as tell their stories. Drawings, diagrams, cartoons, magazine clippings, found objects and photographs, provide just as much insight, and may offer more freedom than just writing. Over time, the journals will become a unique record of your child’s passions, interests and creativity – a useful resource for career planning and personal development in later life.
Photo Albums, Scrapbooks and Photobooks
The family photo album has long been central to a family’s connection with their past, capturing not only the appearance of the people involved (aren’t family resemblances fascinating?), but also providing a social history of fashion, homes, transport and general way of life.
The phenomenal growth of scrapbooking in recent years is testament to the special place family photos have in our lives. Creating a scrapbook is an act of love – with a lot of time, effort, creativity and money put into making a special heirloom for future generations.
Today, with digital photography, software and good quality printing readily available, it is now easier than ever to create a family album, even if you are time-poor or find traditional scrapbooking is not your thing. Unlike photo albums of old, it is now possible to include captions or a full story, digitise memorabilia and found treasures and enhance your stories with other material from books and the internet (within copyright guidelines, of course). There is no limit to your creative freedom (see The Family Magazine project).
Treasure Boxes and Time Capsules
Why only keep paper-based archives? Treasure boxes are perfect for keeping special items and family heirlooms tucked away for future generations. One of the loveliest gifts I ever received was just before the birth of my son. My mother-in-law sent us two small boxes filled with bassinette linen, blankets and baby clothes, stored carefully from the time my husband and his sister had been little. Many of these items had been lovingly hand-made by grandmas and aunties no longer with us.
While it’s impossible to keep everything, storing a few favourite things like clothes, toys, artwork, letters, medals etc in a treasure box will bring back a flood of memories when passed onto your kids at their 21st birthday or other special occasion (see Notes on Archiving.)
Alternatively, creating a time capsule is a fun project for the whole family to capture a specific moment in time (see Time Capsule project).
In our “busy” lives, the time for collecting and recording the stories, events and stages of our children’s lives is hard to find, yet we know that our memories will fail us, and in years to come this special time will be just a shadow.
So much of our lives are already documented. By putting it together into a coherent, archival format, you’ll be ready for when your child asks what they were like as a baby; your teenager is seeking purpose in life; your grown-up children look to their own childhood for answers to their current parenting challenges. And beyond…
In the scale of time, the hours spent creating your family archive is a drop in the ocean.
NB. This article was originally published in Maeve Magazine – Winter 2011.
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