A new adventure began today.
We arrived at the archives and we were very late but all we knew we had
to do was one rework from 10 days ago and it was not going to present a
challenge because it was not too many pages.
We saw where we did not have the glass down properly and we wondered why
one image would prompt such a strongly worded reprimand when the FHC has lost
two batches of work from work done 4 years ago.
So we did the rework and it was put aside and we began work on the Court
papers from up north. We did not get far
when we realized that it was only one section of the papers that needed rework
and we did not know what that section was so we called SLC and talked to Audrey
and she said she would email the information to us. So we stopped work on that project and looked
at the somewhat daunting task of redoing the 21boxes of the 3x5 cards of
military signups for world war one.
We asked Audrey if we had to do them single capture or if we
could do 6 cards at one time and she said that single capture was preferable
but since we have such a powerful camera, we could do double capture and when
people looked at the images, they would only see one at a time anyway. So we began the rework of these cards. At first I put two cards down and then we
captured the image. We worked at it trying
to find a way to do it quickly so that we would not be tied to this rework for
the rest of our mission. So we had one
person put two cards together and hand them to the other who put them on the
cradle top (we first put a black board on the cradle) and the keeper of the
cards pushed the button to capture and once captured, the cards were then put
in a pile to be put back into the box. We
found that we could get them done pretty fast this way. I tried to do it for as long as I could but
my back became quite sore and started to spasm and I could hardly stand the
pain, so I sat at the console, handed cards to Bill, he arranged them, I
clicked the image, he put the cards in a pile and I handed him two more and so
we worked at it.
I injured my back in the Summer of 1967 while working for
Dole Pineapple factory. The benches we
worked at were built for the short Japanese women who worked there and since I
am taller than them , I had to stay bent over the table and it strained my back
and it has never really gotten better. I
have the same problem with my back if I sit on a regular kitchen chair and sew
on the sewing machine rather than get my office chair and use that while I sit
and sew.
We have to make 13 folders from these 21 boxes and each
folder has approximately 1780 cards and it comes out to about 23,140
cards. Actually, our assignment is to
start with a certain name for each folder and end with a certain name, and then
begin a new folder, until we have completed 13 of them.
In about 4 ½ hours, we did close to 1500 cards and we expect
to get even faster at it. We will be
able to do that if they don’t keep the room so cold because my fingers do not
want to work when it is so cold and it is hard to get the two cards together. It is the middle of summer but everyone in
the Search room and in our room wear heavy jackets just to keep warm while we
work. They have to keep it cold so that
the papers do not disintegrate. They
tell us that the men are working on the air conditioning system to see if they
could get It regulated better – well at present they have achieved the enviable
level of 62 degrees……while outside it is between 80 and 90 degrees with
comparable humidity levels.
The light in the living room has not worked since we moved
into this apartment. So we called Karen,
who takes care of such things, and she got an electrician to come and fix it
for us. We found that the light had been
turned off at the control box and one of the light globes did not work as
well. So it turned out to be a rather
expensive 20 minutes for the landlord for the electrician to come and flip a
switch and change a light bulb.
We went to line dance class tonight and it was a lot of
fun. I find that I am getting better at
remembering the steps and the people are really nice there. Mary invited us to her home to see Puffalump
and Tilly tomorrow night after we get through at the Archives, YMCA, dinner
etc. We will go over to her house to pet
these two little wonderful animals.
On the way home I called Andrea and she said it has been so
hot and dry that our grass was dying so Stan let the water run longer and the
grass is surviving. We are so grateful
to all the people who have worked on our home while we have been gone.
Even though today was starting out to be a colossal problem,
we worked together to improve the manner in which we digitized the cards and it
turned out to be a pretty good day after all.
I like adventures that turn out to have a happy ending.
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