Throwback Thursday

I rescued a Kodak slide carousel from the library's trash can yesterday. For anyone reading this that doesn't know/remember what the heck I'm talking about, this is the machine that allowed sharing one's favorite photographs to get 'technologically advanced" (a few decades before Facebook).

 

In an episode of Mad Men, Don Draper pitches an ad campaign about this exact product. I highly suggest watching the episode, but here's his speech for your reading pleasure:

Remember, in the 60's this was THE height of technology. 

Now it's archaic, practically an antique. But the sentimentalist in me (and she's pretty loud!) could not bear to see this artifact in the trashcan, destined for the dump. Even if I have no real use for it anymore, I had to save it and preserve it in some form.

At first, I just took the box. I hail from Rochester, NY which is/was the home of Kodak since George Eastman founded the company, and the box is a small piece of my home city's history. But then I decided to do some Googling and I saw some neat-o pictures online of ways to upcycle slide carousels. Pretty soon, my screwdriver was out and I was disassembling the thing, picking out the pieces that I can use.

I am not sure what I'll end up making yet, but the slide carousel is headed toward a new life. 

I know that librarians are supposed to embrace technology and welcome new ways to find information, but I am always torn between the historian (all about the past) and the librarian in me.

I think maintaining a soft spot in my heart for outdated technology, while finding a new use for it is a way to allow these two sides of my personality to co-exist in peace.