During a recent news broadcast showing the evacuation of homes in British Columbia, I asked myself the question: “What would you take if you were told to leave your home within 10 or 15 minutes?”
To make a split second decision like that, I honestly don’t know what I would grab to stuff into the vehicle, besides Housemate, of course. And hopefully he would lend a hand gathering some items himself.
I would make sure I had my purse with credit card, health card and driver’s licence, the container of medications sitting on the table, cell phone and laptop and chargers, some water and crackers, some clothing and then what?
We bantered ideas back and forth without negating the seriousness of what others are facing in so many locations. We agreed Housemate would try to take his cameras and I immediately thought about all the photo albums we have filled over the years and how tragic it would be to lose all those memories
Just recently I meandered through pages of photos to find one of a bald-headed baby to show a great niece that infant baldness does indeed run in the family. Imagine the distress if that photo and others were destroyed in a disaster of some kind, an earth quake, tornado, flood or wild fire.
I made a mental note to myself to buy an extra tote box in which to place all the albums so we could grab and go without having to gather at the last minute and taking up precious time.
There are indeed many things to consider when thinking of evacuation, but I vowed that if possible, transport of photos would be one of my priorities.
Therefore it was ironic a few days later to read that September is known in some places as “save your photos month” with the last Saturday of the month being “save your photos day.”
The accompanying educational material relating to saving photos offered many ways for families to save their photos, not just in emergency situations, but for historical and heritage references.
One of the first actions is to make sure all photos in the albums are marked with identities, locations and year. I recall a few years ago trying to figure out the names of so many grumpy people in the family albums. Those photos are gone forever.
With the digital age having taken over photography, the authors of the ways to save one’s photos zeroed in on transferring photos from computers onto flash drives or sending them to a cloud for safekeeping. I’ve been threatening to do that with the photos on my phone but so far have procrastinated, mostly because I don’t want to admit I don’t know how to do that and don’t want to reveal my technological ineptness.
It would indeed be easier to stick a flash drive in my pocket than it would be for Housemate to load a tote box of photo albums into our escape vehicle.
Meanwhile, we thank our lucky stars that we even have some time to think about leaving our home in a hurry. So many others did not have the time to plan and are now homeless or unsure if their homes are still standing.
In that scheme of things, having Housemate safely in the car with me means more than any number of photos.
Joyce Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
