Memory Box

Chucken

I'm thinking of doing a memory box for my future grandchild
Apart from the obvious newspapers etc,what should I put in it?
Funny suggestions very welcome

OldGoat

Nothing but a treasure map to a different location. Make 'em work for it.

looksee

(Add later: Scans, hospital identity band, naked baby on sheepskin rug pic) current pic of grandparents and parents - so s/he can fall about laughing at you in 20 years time. Pic of family house. Some stuff on a flash pen and a cd, see if they will be readable in xxx years time. Some of this year's minted coins (or nearest). Current popular music cd. An 'old fashioned' (ie, the ones we are still using) light bulb. Can't think of anything funny.

Jellybaby1

What a great idea! Loved OG's suggestion of a map - I think that might be along the lines of a time capsule only I suggest you bury the map with the capsule! Harhar!

How about making videos, include interviews with the family members, tour of family homes. When I look at old photos I sometimes see things in the background I hadn't noticed before like a picture on a wall, or a calendar. Its only in the last couple of years we got a video camera. I wish we'd had the money to buy one when our kids were young. Again, technology will change so maybe you'd have to dig it up every time some equipment becomes obsolete!

A video though doesn't have to stop at any time. You can continue it throughout the child's life and include videos of new brothers/sisters as they arrive, and each big event in the family, etc.

Janedoe10

Cassette tape ( remember those) they will look weirder in say 20 years . VHS tape .. U will no doubt have to put in notes as to what they are as the means to play them might not be there then . Some national paper front page on the day u put it in . I found an old paper stored away in my mams things from the 60's and it was lovely seeing what was on the front page .

Rubecula

Fer gawd sake do not put soup in.

Before and after pictures of something may be good though.

Jellybaby1

Deffo put soup in. Memory Soup! Only one ingredient, a pound of grey cells!

Chucken

Great ideas there folks
I'm going to start on it next week.
Like Jellybaby,I had no camcorder when my 2 were small...I even had to borrow a camara on occasions

I think a little walk around the town filming would be good too.


Oh and Rube....I'll put in all your favourite soup recipies

jos28

I did a memory box for each of my children and gave them to them on their 21st birthdays. I had things like their identity bracelet from the maternity hospital, a lock of hair, their name badge from their first day at school,their school reports, any awards they won for sport etc, the first letter that arrived in the post addressed to them, their favourite cuddly toy, one item of clothing that they looked really cute in (age 2 Levis are adorable ). I also included a movie on dvd that I made from all the photos I had of them with a soundtrack of the various music they loved throughout the various stages. Have to admit that it was worth the effort, they absolutely loved them.

A friend of mine wrote his memoirs for his grandchildren, nothing worthy of literary praise but more his life story. His parents, where they lived, stories from his childhood, his first job, the story of how he met their Grandmother.......that sort of thing, all illustrated with relevant photos. The kids loved it, wish my parents/grandparents had done the same for me.

Jellybaby1

jos28 you have great suggestions there. I'll be saving all these up (if Chucky doesn't mind) for the future in case I ever have any grandchildren. My grandparents were already in heaven when I arrived so I can't scold them for not doing this, and my parents were more interested in keeping food on the table and the wolf from the door to be caring about memory boxes, sadly. Times wuz hard then!

jos28

Jellybaby, I knew my Grandmothers but both Grandads died before I was born. I do however have loads of stories that my parents told me and I would love to make a record of in case I ever have grandchildren. I would love to pass on some idea of what life was like for our parents generation. Not in a moany 'In my day we lived in a shoe box' sort of way but more a picture of the things they got up to as they grew up. Although most kids would have great trouble trying to imagine life before technology !

Jellybaby1

You lived in a shoe-box?

"You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep wi' his belt."

From 'Four Yorkshiremen', Monty Python.

jos28

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

You lived in a shoe-box?

"You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep wi' his belt."

From 'Four Yorkshiremen', Monty Python.

Excellent !! Classic Monty Python

Rubecula

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

You lived in a shoe-box?

"You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep wi' his belt."

From 'Four Yorkshiremen', Monty Python.

"Luxury! We used to have to get up half an hour before went to bed, have a handful of cold gravel for breakfast, then lick road clean with our tongues............"

Anyway, Back on topic, some form of recording would be nice to put in your box Chucken. Photos of course, but some kind of picture recording on a disc would be good too, especially as it could be that wonder of modern magic... MOVING pictures, WITH SOUND. You could record a loving message to them to be played 100 years down the road.

looksee

some kind of picture recording on a disc would be good too, especially as it could be that wonder of modern magic... MOVING pictures, WITH SOUND. You could record a loving message to them to be played 100 years down the road.

lol, I have messages recorded by my family when I was abroad in my 20s. Sadly they are on reel to reel tape (the sort with two 'tracks' on each side) and I haven't heard them since! I am sure there are people out there with the old machines that would play/re-record them, but maybe they are 'perished'.

That's only 40 years, any messages would have to be re-recorded every time the technology changed.

OldGoat

looksee wrote: »

lol, I have messages recorded by my family when I was abroad in my 20s. Sadly they are on reel to reel tape (the sort with two 'tracks' on each side) and I haven't heard them since! I am sure there are people out there with the old machines that would play/re-record them, but maybe they are 'perished'.

That's only 40 years, any messages would have to be re-recorded every time the technology changed.

I know that Beechpark do a tape to digital service for studio master tapes. I'm pretty sure they will do reel to reel two track too. Might be a bit pricy though. Ask in the Audio Video editing forum - I'm sure you find there are plenty of transfer posibalities, or at the very least a lead to a second hand reel to reel player.
http://www.beechpark.com/services.html

looksee

Thats a handy link OG, thank you, and the prices are not outrageous. Its more inertia that has led to nothing being done though! My dad's and my granny's voices are on one of the tapes, so it would be nice to get them done.

Rubecula

looksee wrote: »

lol, I have messages recorded by my family when I was abroad in my 20s. Sadly they are on reel to reel tape (the sort with two 'tracks' on each side) and I haven't heard them since! I am sure there are people out there with the old machines that would play/re-record them, but maybe they are 'perished'.

That's only 40 years, any messages would have to be re-recorded every time the technology changed.

Not much good to you Looksee but I do have a reel to reel recorder in full working order. Next time I pop over to Ireland you can have it for free, as I don't use it much (at all) Some tapes with it too, mostly music. Not sure if I still have the microphone though.