Saturday, June 1, 2013

gonna-be-old-later things



While I have no children (and am not pregnant), I do have a thing with saving stuff (less like hoarding, more like scrapbooking). This morning as I was lying in bed, I thought about a sheet of 37-cent stamps I had, and was wondering whether to use them up or save a couple in the name of When Stamps Were 37-Cents.

Which got me thinking, how old would they have to be for someone to care?

Which got me thinking, who would get those stamps when I died? (likely my currently non-existent posterity)

Which got me thinking, what if those posterity people were to have a packet of their own of stuff from when they were born?

Which got me thinking, what would I put in it?

I think this is not a new idea, but crowdsourcing is fun, so. I made a mental list and would love additional thoughts. What is any and every thing you could possibly put in a packet or book of "Stuff from When I Was Born?"

  • Stamps
  • A postmarked letter
  • A newspaper (probably the most common one, but possibly to get harder in coming years with paper news getting more scarce)
  • Their first rattle (I have this of mine)
  • A picture of the gas pump prices
  • A picture of your car(s)
  • A picture of the building you live in
  • A picture of your cell phone (or even the cell phone itself, when you're done using it)
  • A video of you with your new baby and spouse and friends (it would be interesting to see what my parents' sociality was like when they were 22)
  • A copy of a movie that was made that year or your favorite book
  • A few of your favorite or iconic comic strips from that day, or an iconic comic book printed that year
  • Other era-iconic things, like a Netflix envelope, a Hot-and-Ready Little Caesar's pizza box top (give me a break, I'm brainstorming), the front of a couple cereal boxes (again), a fast food bag with the company logo on it, a piece of iconically fashionable clothing
  • A Wired/Time/Newsweek/People magazine from that month or week
  • A list of your favorite songs from that year
  • A piece of art from/about the city you live in
  • A list of statistics from that year (basic census data, sports teams that are winning, important weather patterns like Hurricane Sandy or the Oklahoma tornadoes)
  • A For the Strength of Youth or Personal Progress booklet (those things get updated relatively frequently, and the old ones are AWESOME... one Personal Progress goal was that you could pour kerosene in all standing water for one square mile to get rid of mosquitoes, and one important youth standard was to not go out in public with curlers in your hair)
  • Your favorite print ads from magazines or direct mail
  • Pictures of your favorite billboards
  • Ticket stubs from a movie or concert or game you went to that year (both for the movie of that year and for the look of what today's ticket stubs look like)
  • Screenshots of your most-used websites or music players or programs or Freecell?
  • If you live in a small town, pictures of the main street (big cities are probably less likely to change as much over a lifetime ... unless you get a picture of Times Square with the ads and everything)
Anything else?

p.s. I think this is also known as a time capsule.

1 comment:

  1. One complaint: there is not picture so I can't pin this great idea (o:

    ReplyDelete