Gone Canoeing
A patron recently visited the Digital Services department on the Lower Level of the Library with a whopper of a tale. He had a VHS tape to convert to DVD. With his permission, we’re sharing the story of his VHS tape…
In 1979, this patron took a canoeing trip on the Buffalo River in Arkansas with a group of friends and his brother. On the first day of the trip, the river level was low, and they had to portage (carry the canoes) over areas of the river where the water was too low to float over. Then, that night, there was a major rainstorm and by the next morning, the river had swollen and it was high and flowing fast.
One of the man’s friends had smartly put all of his belongings, including his wallet and a camera, into a waterproof military-type box. The next day on the river was much different from that first day, and at one point, in the fast flowing water, the canoes tipped, sending all of their contents to the bottom of the river where they were thought to have been lost forever.
Around forty years later, someone was fishing in that same stretch of the Buffalo River, and he happened to hook the box with the belongings from that canoeing trip so long ago. The fisherman reeled it in, and discovered that the contents of the box were intact and dry, even after all those years underwater. He used the driver’s license found in the wallet to track down and contact our patron’s fellow traveler. Upon hearing the news of the found box, the return of the box and its contents was arranged. The film on the lost camera was what our patron was converting to DVD from a VHS tape.
Sadly, all of the friends from that trip have since passed, but the patron was overjoyed to be able to share the incredible story, and relive the memories of his friends and that fabled trip.
If you have valuable memories on an outdated VHS tape that you would like to convert to DVD, you can find that equipment on the Lower Level of the Niles-Maine District Library.
