Rebuilding Rob

I’m getting a little greedy with all the hits that Your Favorite Blog has received in the last three days; ever since I switched to some writing prompts from this particular website.

Mary G over at 50 happens – another blog that you should really check out – had this timely idea for a prompt.

In the wake of the fires affecting Southern California currently, what are some things that you would pack with you if you were forced to evacuate?

Mary has a really great response to this question here. Check it out!

As for me, I would probably have to opt with photos as well. It’s an easy answer; one to which I’m sure everyone can relate. It took the 2002 movie One Hour Photo – starring the late Robin Williams – for me to realize just the importance that photographs truly played in our lives. His character is absolutely right when he says that if given the choice, people will save their family photos in the event of a fire.

I guess it really shouldn’t surprise me. For a second career, the old man had opened up the wedding photography and videography business. For a few years as well as in college, I assisted him with videotaping weddings, while he shot still photos. I wouldn’t say that the old man was terribly expensive as a wedding photographer. He wasn’t cheap by any means, but he was definitely competitive. My point is that people were willing to pay very good money to have a professional photographer and videographer capture their wedding for them on film.

I was talking to my high school students today about the California fires. I was explaining that fires in the northern wilderness parts of California or not unusual. That part of the state does not get much rain and therefore things get very dried out. The fires at the city is currently experiencing a little bit different and that wins that typically blow from west to east are now blowing east wet, spreading fires in the parts of Los Angeles that typically are not affected.

Growing up as a kid in the 80s, it seemed like every TV show had at least one “fire” episode. At one point when I was very young, I thought it was some kind of bizarre rite of passage for a family to experience their home burning down. I am grateful to say that I’ve never had to go through that experience.

It is interesting however, that ever since the advent of digital photography, people do still hold onto hard copy, physical photos. We still place them on our desks and on our walls. Digital picture frames – while a neat idea – have never taken off the way people expected.

I would want photos of my parents, my brother and my sister. Most of the photos of Kid 1 and Kid 2 were taken digitally. Many of those I burned to CD several years ago. Getting some kind of fire-proof lock box for those discs might be in order.

Photos of the boys would be of the highest priority to me. But it’s kind of odd for me for two reasons. First, since I don’t have as many photos of the boys – hardcopy or digital – as they don’t live with me every day. I would hope that their mothers would be extremely cooperative with me, ensuring the photos they already have. Secondly, as I already mentioned, I have already saved many of these photos digitally.

I remember when my ex-mother-in-law passed, X1 and her siblings began the process of downsizing their childhood home, so their dad could relocate. X1 and I took on the responsibility of organizing family photos, to ultimately be scanned and burned to CD for digital consumption.

The photo company that scanned all the hard copy photos made no attempt to organize them. So I took it upon myself thanks all the photos, by year, and burn a new CD for all the family members. To do this, I went by handwritten notes that we’re on the back of many of the photos. In addition, some of them had a date and timestamp when they were printed. And then in some cases, there were just certain hints or things that I would see in other pictures that allowed me to get pretty much everything together in order.

This ended up being a really fascinating exercise because at doing this, I feel like I literally walked through the history of X1’s immediate family. Obviously, I wasn’t there every year for Christmas, but I felt like I knew all the presents that all the kids got year after year. At the same time, it felt a little bit depressing. It seemed as the entire history of her immediate family had been reduced to a few hundred photographs.

Given the state of Mother’s health right now, I have to wonder if I’ll be facing the same task – sooner rather than later – for my own immediate family. I don’t know if I could take that task on for my immediate family. I think it would be very emotional; which is the reason that I offered to do it for my then-in-laws.

Well, I gotta admit that I went a little bit deeper with this particular topic than I expected. I didn’t realize it would tie in to so many different aspects of my own life, both my past and present!

The situation with the California wildfires particularly hits home with me. A good friend of mine, The Reverend, whom I have talked about a few times on this blog over the years, currently lives in southern California. He’s marked himself as “safe“ on Facebook. However, he has had a few close calls.

If you need assistance, or have the means to provide assistance to victims of the California wildfires , check out the American Red Cross website for more information.

I am inching ever-closer to 500 consecutive days of blogging! Stay tuned…

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, 👍 comment and subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier, related posts:

• Rob’s Retro Movie Review: This is Spinal Tap (1984) – The Movie That Scaled to Eleven
• A Death in the Family (And My Disposable Income): My Life in Comics
• The Supporting Cast: Navigating the Eras of Male Friendship
• Life is What Happens: A Look Back at My Non-Existent 2025 Vision
• The Moment I Walked Inside a Hallmark Movie

The article “Look At This Photograph!” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob.