The Land Never Dies Though Appearance Constantly Changes

                “The land never dies” is the last line spoken Lynn Redgrave’s character, Charlotte to her grandson in the 1978 mini-series “Centennial”.  The series is a time period piece about settlers in Colorado during the 1700’s.  Roland had watched the movie shortly after watching a documentary featuring the rise and fall of Blockbuster video. 

https://www.netflix.com/title/81354557 

I remember Blockbuster.  I remember going to the video store to find videos when they were available on both VHS and Beta.  I remember the days long before Redbox and Nextflix.  I had never thought of the details or evolution.  I remember going for VHS – I don’t remember ever having checked out DVDs.  But there is still evidently one location in which renting DVDs is still a commodity.  

https://www.businessinsider.com/blockbuster-survives-in-bend-oregon-2018-8

Bend, Oregon is home to the very last Blockbusters.  Wow. 

I remember things in my childhood that Jenna will never experience or relate to.  Video rentals weren’t even part of my childhood but rather my teenage years.  Patrick had saved up his money to purchase a VCR.  Eight hundred dollars in cash.  Somewhere there exists a photo of Kayla wearing headphones and holding eight one-hundred dollar bills. Shocking! I know. First VCR and the remote was not even wireless.

My aunt and uncle had also purchased a VCR.  It was around Christmas time and they had gone to the video store to look for a family movie.  It was before Blockbusters and the selection was thin to start with – but especially during the holidays.  With little choice left (nothing Christmas themed at that) they settled on an early version of Gullivar’s Travels.  Oh, what a treat that must have been.  

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076119/?ref_=tt_mv_close

I don’t remember renting so much as recording.  Patrick had recorded a televised copy of Capricorn One.  This scene had been cut  to make room for sponsers' ads.  

https://forgottenfilmcast.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/capricorn-one/

Though the scene may seem dull on its own, it’s a pretty crucial piece for the viewers to fully comprehend the scenes that follow, and thus Patrick would pause – holding the remote and wiring at a specific angle so that even with the wire intact, the VCR could read the remote signals.   

I honestly don't even remember the brand though
it probably wasn't this photo I found on pintrest

He would then explain the scene that had been cut out.  

Eventually we did join the novelty of going to the video store and looking at a huge assortment of shelves filled with movie titles.  We rented movies.  We physically left the house and loaded ourselves into the car to drive to a location which rented movies – now a nostalgic thing of the past.  Something that my children will never understand as they had grown up with cable and a variety of channels and not just the three that were available when I was a kid.

They don’t understand the inconvenience of the phone cord getting tangled as they are all younger than the cell phone.  They’ve grown up in an “instant gratification” society where as I was only introduced to the door not long before they came along.  I remember a world before cell phones, before ipods, cable, DVDs or even VCR.  My mom remembers when it was rare to have one TV – let alone one for each room.  I remember black and white TVs, huge monitors and TV repair.  Today is a “throw-away” society which has taken away the professions of so many who had learned the trade of repairing shoes, televisions, vacuums, cameras, etc.  

Today technological equipment is considered out dated the minute it’s purchased.  Anything over two years is considered a relic even if there’s no damage to said item.  Take my first Doro for instance.  I would still use it if the company would allow for it to connect to the towers – but maybe they really don’t have the control.  IT WAS A DECENT PHONE!   NONE of the replacements have been.  It’s as if when my Doro was disconnected so was my life (it was the beginning of 2020 after all)

It’s nice to know that somewhere out there the nostalgia is not completely gone.  Bend is nearly a four hour drive – not that we’d go there to rent movies.  It’s now a historic landmark.  People will take selfies in front of “the last Blockbusters on earth”.  When you come to Oregon you’ll want to visit Crater Lake – but hey, why not just pop over to Bend.  It’s not that far. 

https://www.mediapolisjournal.com/2018/11/old-tucson-overview/

The land may never die – but it certainly changes – though not on its own.  Men change the appearance.  They build empires and empires get torn down.  Evolution changes.  Landscape changes.  But the land is always there.

Neumann Developments

Where Do We Draw the Line?

         The first time I remember meeting Ben (not his actual name) was at one of the schools.  There was concern about safety with gang violence and other criminal activity.  After the presentation there was a QA session and Ben provided three phone numbers to call.  One was the local police department, one was for the Sheriff’s office and the last one he gave he said was his personal number.  I had programmed all three into my phone but had only used one and never the other two.

Ben had run for office as the Sheriff head cheese – which was not the official title but he had worked under the Sheriff head cheese not as a deputy but an acting sheriff and had run against the head cheese I don’t know how many times.  He was running the year I dragged my husband to an adjoining neighborhood to support his campaign.  I remember liking his facebook page which I guess at the time qualified me as an automatic member of his group.

In 2011 we were living in West Valley (not a prestige neighborhood by any means) and Ben was serving in law enforcement in the overly prestige Cottonwood Heights (nearly 30 miles apart) when he had been caught using public funds for personal gain.  Whether it was intentional or not I do not know.  His work had provided him with a gas card to fill up the city vehicle that he used – however there was a suspicious 44 dollar discrepancy that could not be accounted for.  Investigation proved that the money had been spent on personal transportation.  Now I don’t know how often this was done as that is the only amount I come across as I search through old records.  At the time rumors made it sound like a regular occurrence.

I remember I was asked to sign a petition to “save” Ben from having to go to court, jail, prison . . . whatever the misdemeanor punishment was.  Ben did have a lot of charisma.  People liked him and surely he could be forgiven of this one minor mistake.  I liked him – I still do despite his tarnished reputation – but my initial thought was NOT to sign the petition but rather to make an example out of him.  If we dismissed the small act of crime (or perhaps it really was an accident?) perhaps a larger felon could be committed by someone in a higher office (say the mayor or the governor) and perhaps the public would look away and dismiss his actions.  No, the public had to know that Ben had committed a crime and would not be allowed to get away with it.  

If a public figure punished for something that seemed so small (how many tanks could 44 dollars fill in 2011?) but yet might ruin his reputation others may think twice before committing something worse.  If Ben didn’t get away with spendings 44 dollars of the taxpayers money (again, the amount could have been more but that is the only amount I have come across in my research at this time) would anybody else be able to get away with more?

In my last post I talked about a shared video that was removed from the page I had posted it on.  I had sent the shared video to my brother who is no longer on facebook but is on messenger.  He wrote back the following:

“I enjoyed the TikTok video. I do think the removal of the video on the church page is an unfortunate example of missing the larger message at the expense of a minor bit of innocuous profanity. But I also recognize that the administrators of the page have set some ground rules that they need to abide by.”

I thought of this example of Ben. I also thought about the evolution of programming.  Married couples (such as Rob and Laura Petrie or Ricky and Lucy Ricardo) were depicted as sleeping in twin beds.  Today’s programming shows you what they’re doing in bed – often not being married (at least to each other).  

Where do we draw the line?

 I love this example of the Kingdom of Rayad I had heard several years ago about how we will rationalize things to make them seem right.  In the Kingdom of Rayad the citizens were not allowed to eat chocolate cake or wear the color red but over time ideas are introduced like the color pink “which really isn’t red and it wasn’t all the time”. 

They are introduced to  chocolate chip cookies “which isn’t the same as chocolate cake”.  What may seem acceptable to some may offend others.  Where do we draw the line?  How about we stay within the boundaries that our Heavenly Father has set for us?  Perhaps this was a lesson I had forgotten and need to remember.

Cameras and Referral Sites

          When Jenna told me her assignment was on camera history, I smiled as I had recently touched on that same subject in class discussion post that I briefly mention here.  I ended up with this thought on digital cameras versus film:

       " The digital camera was made available to the public in 1988 (Ternholm, 2007).  Before the start of the 21st Century,  I had known several people who had tried to sway me into the perks of having/owning digital.  I don't remember all the reasons I had for sticking with my 35mm and rolls of film, but one of the reasons was because I had convinced myself that the picture quality was better from the film than the digital results.

        "It wasn't until our family had an opportunity of hosting a foreign exchange student that I was "swayed" to the perks that a digital camera could provide.  My "son" would take several pictures and post them to a blog that he had created.  I had had the option of retrieving copies of pictures I had taken with my 35mm.  If I put in the right code, I could view them online and even save them to the computer if I chose.  It was nice to have that option, but the quality really wasn't there.

        "I received my first digital camera in 2006.  I found many perks to a digital camera that weren't available on my 35mm.  Not only was the quality better when I viewed it on the computer, but I could view all pictures before they would be "developed".  I had the option of deleting the ones I didn't want and would not have to pay for a lot of dumb pictures I wasn't able to view until after they were developed.  Digital feels like less of a gamble and less of an expense than does film.  Taking thousands of pictures without having to change film was the deal breaker.  I love the digital camera." 

          I was not at home when Jenna returned from school yesterday as I had a dentist appointment in Riddle.  Yesterday morning I had taken time look up a few references related to the camera and had also written down my own memories - none of which she used.  Instead, she went with my initial suggestion to interview Bill and was on the phone with him when I returned back from the dentist.

          She wanted to start her paper off with a humorous introduction and went with " I want to take up photography as it is the only job you get to shoot people and cut their heads off without getting arrested."  My suggestion had been to ask the question "Why is it that people didn't smile in early photographs?" but I am happy that she made her own choice - as the quote does capture her personality.

          I had read an article on the TIME website here that provided two possibilities of reasons why people didn't smile in the early 19th century photographs.  The first had nothing to do with the camera, but the second possibility was the one I had been looking for that the long process of loading the film and taking the picture was just too long for sitting still - let alone wearing a smile for that length of time.

          She barely touched on the subject of people not smiling and heavy equipment used only by professional photographers.  Mostly she ended up quoting everything that Bill had told her.  Meanwhile, I had suggested my own memories of cameras and film.  As she did not include any of my memories in her report, I will post them here.

          First I went through some names of inventors and original invention found here before starting in with the memories, the first was from my mom.  She was telling me about a red box camera that her father had used.  She said she recalls that he would go into the closet every time he had to change the film.    Not a whole lot of pictures were taken, but we do have some.

Grandma Mary, Uncle John and my mom about 1943

in San Francisco

 

          I don't recall my first camera or how many cameras total.  I know that both Patrick and I had our own cameras when Kayla was a baby as she was often the subject of our pictures.

 We had a Polaroid at one time.  Those even harder to keep in the photo album than those tacky corners.  In 1978 my parents bought me a colorburst camera. 

came with its own rainbow strap.  How cool is that?

It was cool to get instant pictures, but again, the bulkiness of the photos themselves.  I remember scanning in several photos and do know that Polaroids were among them but cannot seem to retrieve any at this time except for this one that I found on my brother's facebook page

 The camera was available for only two years and discontinued as Polaroid had brought a lawsuit against Kodak which evidently took years to resolve with a heavy fine which Kodak had to pay to Polaroid found here, here and here.

         

          I remember Kodak had sent out discount coupons or certificates or something to compensate their customers who had purchased the colorburst.  I remember purchasing a disc camera.  It is the one that I used while on my mission here.

         

          When I worked at Patrick Dry Goods, I had purchased and several lenses.  I think it was the only camera I had owned that wasn't solely automatic.  I had fun experimenting with the lenses, but it was short-lived.

          Throughout the years I've had many cameras including these two:

probably my first with built-in flash

I had purchased this for durability.  I figured it was a tough camera.  As a leader, I took it to YW camp

 

          Even though digital was available before I was married, I did not have my first digital camera until after Jenna was born.  The digital camera doesn't seem to built to last, however. I am currently on my 5th camera in the last twelve years.  My first camera was a used sony, and actually the best camera of the ones I had.  It died after 6,000 plus pictures.  Every other one has lasted less than four years.  I'm hoping my current camera may outlast them all. It has a lot more features and is the biggest digital camera that I've owned.

          It is said that there have been over 40 camera brands and over 2,000 models.  I have tried at least seven brands throughout my life.  I lost track of how many cameras I have gone through.  The camera truly is a great invention.

Picnics in the Freeway and Swimming Downtown

            After we had moved my mom into assisted living, we gutted out her house and set aside things for ourselves and the rest for a massive yard sale.  Corey had returned from Las Vegas to claime what was his and took a lot of what had once been hers.  He said he wanted all the photos.  There were many that I wanted to scan so that I could have digital copies, but I really didn't have the room for all of the hard photographs.  Corey and Joh had more room than any of my mother's other children.

            It was in September of this year that Corey and Joh came to Oregon for a brief visit.  Unfortunately, when they returned home to their house in Las Vegas, they learned that several parts of the house had received water damage due to a flood caused by a broken pipe.  They have since undergone renovation and have been forced to make decisions about weeding out certain belongings.  Through this trial, Corey has decided that he too will scan all of the photographs as hanging onto the physical photographs is no longer a priority.

            As he has been scanning, he has also been sharing various photos.  I don't know seeing them has stirred up a lot of memories for me, or if it's the subject of my classes introducing land development and building costs and so forth, or if it's a combination of both.  I certainly have done a huge amount of time traveling remembering how things were before evolution took over . . . 

            Someone had given my Uncle George the book "Salt Lake City, Then and Now"  

by Kirk Huffaker, David Watts (Photographer), Catherine Fegan-Kim (Photographer)

I want that book.  There are several pages that compare yesterdays landscape to today's

instagram.com/slctotheworld   04-18-2014

  salt lake traveler

some depict the same familiarity in both photos

Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune A view of Main and South 

Temple, looking north, is seen on May 27, 2014, and again in 1950.

while others locations show different buildings

Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune Looking north east on

Main Street, just south of 100 South, in Salt Lake City, Tuesday

June 3, 2014 and the same view seen sometime in the 1860s.

I made these two pages for Jenna

before we moved to Oregon.  Of course, I do not remember all the landscape that existed before the evolution

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865610856/The-ghosts-under-our

-feet-88-modernhistorical-photos-show-Salt-Lake-then-and-now.html

but I do have my own memories of certain things that perhaps others may share as well . . . or maybe not.

When I was younger, my mom had signed me up for swim lessons.  My brother, Patrick and I would carpool with the boys across the street.  I don't know how often our lessons were, but the drive was far.  Really far.  It boggles my mind to think how far the Deseret Gym was located from our house.

            The Deseret Gym is no longer there nor are any of the buildings on that entire block (see here) for all buildings were demolished and land preserved until it became the conference center

https://www.hydrotechusa.com/projects/lds-conference-center

notice the building takes up the entire block

    

            It would not be totally accurate for me to say that I used to take swim lessons at the conference center, but I did take swim lessons where the conference center is located.

            Yesterday's lunch triggered another memory about exploring and picnicking in a field that was dug up years later and has become a part of what is known as I215

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_80_in_Utah

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ipd/project_profiles/ut_i15_corridor.apxs

            Patrick and I had gone with his friend to see the "tree house" he said was there.  We had all packed a lunch and took our little jaunt into the fields just outside of the neighborhood.  The tree house was no more than a single board nailed to one, maybe two branches of a tree.  We all climbed up and sat on the board and ate our lunch.

            Our friend had brought a tuna fish sandwich that had been plastered in mustard.  Gross!  I don't know why I even remember that.

            We used to hold block parties at the dead-end section of mom's old neighborhood.  The entire neighborhood would gather together for food, games,  and of course, one another's company.  I don't know how often or if they still hold them.  The last neighborhood party I remember being in said location was the year that Roland and I were married.

            Well, that's it for this post.  Have to get back to class.  Take an assessment.  Turn in an assignment.  I'm not procrastinating really.  I'm taking a break after having spent so much time trying to figure the text myself.  The lecture is on Wednesdays with a disorganized but nice instructor that I've had before.  Fortunately, I have only one class this mod.