A Popcorn Memory

 Jiffy-Pop popcorn

If you were like me, a child of the 70s, no discussion of popcorn would be complete without a passing reference to Jiffy-Pop. As the ads said, it was as much fun to make as it was to eat.

For the uninitiated, Jiffy-Pop was a popcorn making invention that resembled a small skillet covered with aluminum foil. Instructions were easy. Light burner on stove. Put Jiffy-Pop container on burner. Shake. That last part was the most important if you didn’t want charred kernels.

As you shook, the aluminum cover would begin expanding to make room for the ever increasing size of all the popcorn kernels. Once all kernels had been popped, your Jiffy Pop container would look like a small, silver mushroom cloud filled with hot, fluffy morsels of goodness.

I can remember jiffy-popping my way through many a Sunday night and Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color. And then microwaves came on the scene and Jiffy-Pop became little more than a footnote in popcorn history.

Mnemonic Me This

"In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.”

 

If you attended school around the same time I did, no doubt you recited that little poem more than once to help your memory during history quizzes.  It’s an example of a mnemonic which is an aide to help bring something to mind. I call them memory pegs or memory triggers. And it is a little embarrassing how many I still use.

Except for February, I simply can’t bring myself to remember how many days are in a particular month unless I first count them down on my knuckles. With your two fists extended in front of you, side by side, start reciting the months. When a month falls on a knuckle, it has 31 days. if it falls between knuckles, it has 30 (or 28).

We probably all use the old “Spring Forward; Fall Back Trick” when it comes time to reset our clocks for Daylight Savings Time.  At least I still do and will undoubtedly continue to do so.

I could never remember which was which – stalagmite or stalactite until I learned this little trick: Stalagmite has a “g” in it because it comes out of the ground. Stalactite has a “c” in it because it hangs from the ceiling.

And finally, I would be incapable of setting a proper table without knowing that utensils with four letters (like fork) are placed to the left (four letters) of the plate while utensils with five letters (spoon, knife) are placed on the right (five letters.)

Our minds being what they are, we would have a hard time remembering anything if it weren’t for these little tricks or memory triggers.  And really, isn’t that why we keep photos, slides, videos and film?  Because they contain the images of memories we don’t want to forget.

Thanks to Home Video Studio Visalia, we don’t have to. The obsolete media once used to store memorable images can be transferred to a more current format, bringing your memories into the digital age. 

What mnemonic do you use? Share them here. Something tells me I’ll need all the memory pegs I can find as the years go by.

Arthur Zepeda and Home Video Studio Visalia specialize in the preservation of family memories through the digitalization of films, videotapes, audio recordings, photos, negatives, and slides. For more information, call 559-732-3050 or visit our website.

Video Tape is Dangerous . . . to your memories.

All forms of "Visual Media" are subject to a limited life span. The hidden danger of video tape is the relatively quick degradation of the tape and the signal recorded on it. For your convenience we have included a table below from the www.filmpreservation.org website that provides a limited guideline for preservation of most of the visual media you might have around your house.

Let's focus on VHS video tape for the moment. It was first introduced as Sony's Betamax format in 1/2" cassettes with a 60 minute record capability. It was never designed to archive "family memories" - it was born to be a cheap distribution medium in the late 70's for commercial/industrial training materials. The average shelf life is estimated to be around 5 -10 years* before it is rendered useless from various factors.

Close behind Sony, JVC followed with a lesser quality offering called VHS. (Video Home System) In VHS format the way the signal was recorded made for less picture quality than Betamax, but a two hour recording capability was a prize feature, so we as consumers adopted this system. This gave rise to inexpensive video cameras and recorders and home-based videography was launched.

The good news is we now have precious, never to be repeated memories captured. The bad news is that it's stored on what was never meant to be a long term storage solution, but rather an inexpensive and reasonable industrial distribution medium.

Your fondest "memories" now exist solely on a disposable by design medium . . . who knew?

What can you do?  It's simple!

Take all of your old VHS tapes with kids, weddings, sports, pets, family and travel memories to Home Video Studio Visalia and have them transferred to a Platinum Archival DVD. This is a real storage solution because our Platinum Archival DVD is rated to last for 100 years. This DVD is so tough that you can scratch it with a nail and it will still play.


Now, let's not forget that we can also organize and edit these tapes together and tell a more specific story. So think about how you might add to the family tree/archive with these old treasures and then distribute those to the rest of the family.

And even if you had Umatic 3/4" or 1/2" Betamax tapes there are still resources at Home Video Studio Visalia to capture those to DVD.

Sure it's another thing on your "to do" list, but it's a very important one, as it involves something totally irreplaceable . . . your memories.

As you are preparing your tapes to be transferred to Platinum Archival DVDs, here are a few tips you need to know:

How to Handle Your Video Tapes

• Never touch the tape itself. 
• Hold it by the side of the cassette
• Rewind the cassette before storing it.
• Keep away from curious kids; avoid dropping or banging the tapes.
• Keep cassettes away from magnetic fields (Top of the Old TV)
• Don't leave a cassette in the car where it will be exposed to heat and cold
• If using a new cassette and it's still cold, let it warm up to room temperature.
• Occasionally fast forward and rewind a tape that's being stored a long time.

How to Store Your Video Tapes

• Store in conditions that are stable, cool and dry.
• Stay away from hot, humid and dusty.
• Store cassettes in the cassette case.
• Store your tapes vertically and not flat to distribute the gravity pull equally, stably and avoid edge damage.And from the www.filmpreservation.org site we get the following information:

Chemical decay is due to spontaneous chemical change. Fading of color dyes in photographs and degradation of binder layers in magnetic tape are examples of decay caused by chemical reactions occurring within the materials themselves. The speed of these reactions depends primarily on temperature, but moisture also plays a role. In general, the warmer the temperature of the storage area, and the higher the Relative Humidity, the faster the media collection will be affected by chemical decay.

Excessive dampness is a very serious environmental threat to media collections because it contributes not only to mechanical decay but to biological and chemical decay as well.


Call us today! 559-732-3050