Vintage 1970s black scuba fins smear oily rubber in the pool

My 86-yr-old mom has me go through her closets and dump stuff into the donate pile or the garbage can (her condo's cans are HUGE!) every week. It's one of the "activities" we do together. She apologizes for it, but I think it's great. It only takes about 30 minutes a week, but she donates half a car load every few months to the "welfare-to-work" or other charity. Yeah, some of it gets put in the trash, but her very lightly used uber-expensive-classic-vintage size 6 suits get donated. I told her what she could get on eBay for this stuff (petite designer clothes back as far as the

50s!) but she prefers to donate to her favorite charities. Good for her! Every time she says, "Less junk for you to deal with when I'm gone." It's not like I can wear it - she's 4'10" and I'm 5'6". She wears a size 6 shoe and I wear a 7.5. Ain't gonna happen.
Reply to
h
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Be careful what you give away....my mom used to give us the "death tour" every time we came to visit after the move to Florida, showing us where valuables and important papers were. Mom collected some gold jewelry, mainly as an investment. She looped the necklaces and bracelets around the hangers for the clothing in her closet...she had a cedar chest with a secret drawer, but who would steal an elderly lady's blouses? My mom died at age 82, and had just begun to show signs that her great memory was not so great. She had gotten compulsive, when she was ill, about paying the bills when they arrived. I handled the mail and writing checks, and I could not lay the bill down when it arrived....I had to keep it in my hand, get the check-book and put the payment in the mailbox. We're both stubborn, but her concerns were most important, so that's what we did. Couple of years before my mom died, she mentioned that she had lost one of her necklaces with gold nuggets on it...said she had it in her hand when she took out the trash and apparently dropped it in the trash. After she died, the first things I got rid of was her clothing, offered to a neighbor friend first. I took an armload of blouses from the closet all in one bunch, and when I took hold of it, I felt a hard lump in the clothing. On looking further, I found my mom's necklace inside the hem ... partly unravelled...in the front of one blouse. I can just envision her doodling around with it, sticking it into the hem and forgetting. She was sharper than most, even with her memory showing signs of failing, so it was a mystery. We both have one-track minds, and if distracted forget something really important :o)

Reply to
norminn

Save the pictures, man, even if you don't think anyone will find interest in them. They will.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Danniken

Judy- the fact that the surface rubs off means that they are NOT as solid as when they were new. The rubber is breaking down. I completely understand about keeping them for sentimental reasons, but all they are good for at this point is a display piece, perhaps on the poolhouse wall or in your kid's bedroom, out of direct sunlight. Spraying them with one of the sealers Krylon markets to artists may make them cleaner to handle, for awhile at least. Unlike the other products you mentioned, rubber flexes, so there really isn't a good way to add a new surface to it.

Reply to
aemeijers

Hi, I am archiving old movie shots and pictures onto a few DVDs. No bulky albums.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

DVD's and CD's have lifespans.

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

But it's a safety issue. My swim fins came off once and I drowned.

Do you have to do the insides too or only the outside?

Reply to
mm

Rocketfins don't require an external supply of oxygen, like jetfins do.

Reply to
mm

That was good. :-)

Reply to
Douglas W. "Popeye" Frederic

I have family albums and a couple of letters which are well over 100 years old and have been scanned onto CD's. They are put away in the immigrant trunk brought over in 1869....I've pondered what will happen if someone tries to read the CD's fifty years from now, after umpteen "upgrades" in storing data. They'll have to find someone who collects antique computers?

Reply to
norminn

Know that the different substrates used in the sandwich of materials used to make CDs and DVDs are different, and may only have a lifespan of less than five years. If you notice, they all are a little different color when you hold them up for a reflection. I would trust that the little flash drives will be around for a very long time, hold the information, not degrade, and will be able to be read. I think those digital storage devices would have a very long lifespan compared to some of the 3-5 year minimum CD's. Not sure of DVD's, but I'm sure you 've all had some that have gone bad. And once they're gone, they're gone. For that type of stuff, Mozy, or those they advertise on talk radio shows might be a consideration for a long term reliable archiving of family artifacts.

Steve

visit my blog at

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watch for the book

A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.

Reply to
Steve B

I'm sure you're not the "ONLY" person with the problem you have.

Try posting here: news:alt.society.mental-health

Reply to
Carmen

Please share with us how you participate in this discussion from the afterlife.

Reply to
Bob

The CDs and DVDs will outlast easy availability of the readers. Each new media format seems to last no more than 20 years, tops, and then you have to go to a specialist, or a museum, to get it read. Plan on copying them over to whatever comes next, or preservation-pack a PC with a reader with the discs. I always try to keep at least one machine available at work and/or at home with the previous 'standard' media hardware in it. It has saved my ass, and others posteriors as well, more than once.

In an airtight light-proof container, photo prints and negatives can easily last a century, as long as they aren't subjected to heat or moisture.

-- aem sends...

Reply to
aemeijers

I have wi-fi.

Reply to
mm

Bob wrote in news:i00spn$lod$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal- september.org:

Awh, come on... A better question would be what kind of bandwidth can you get...

Reply to
Grumman-581

Yeah, right. So, lets start at the beginning. A 1 foot long fin used for body surfing is exactly as functional as a three foot long fin used for free diving and spearfishing?

Is that what you're saying, Lassie?

Steve

visit my blog at

formatting link
watch for the book

A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.

Reply to
Steve B

Yes, you probably are the ONLY person with this problem because most other people are not wanting to " find a varnish or spray that will "cover" and "seal" the fins" that their kids are using in their pool. Most people would probably start to think that dear old dad's fins have had it. Most people wouldn't want to subject their children to the chemicals peeling off of those fins and causing the "black oily inky smear on everything they touch." Most people would simply put dad's fins in the corner and buy their children some new fins that won't leak into the pool and thereby cause unknown damage to their children while their children are exposed to these chemicals peeling off into the pool combined with the chlorine and other pool chemicals.

Yes, you definately have a problem.

Reply to
hierophant

You start off by saying "My kid wants to use my dad's vintage US Divers circa 1970's black scuba fins in the pool but I won't let him until we solve the problem of the oily rubber coming off in our hands. " You solve the problem by not using those fins.

You say, "The only thing happening to them is they rub off a black oily inky smear on everything they touch." Why are you comfortable with that black oily inky smear to keep it around your children long enough to figure out what to do about it?

You say, "I'm wondering if I can find a varnish or spray that will "cover" and "seal" the fins. It must exist. It exists for wood and metals ... so why not vulcanized rubber? " Well Judy, if a varnish or spray does exist, why would you subject your children to it once in the pool? In the water? The water that is covering their skin and the water that their sucking in and spitting out while they play in the pool?

You say, "The fins are solid as when they were new (they definitely do not float) but their can't possibly be a "safety hazard". Why can't there be a safety hazard with a product made 40 yrs ago? Are you sure the chlorine and other chemicals in the pool couldn't interact with the fins even more?

Take those old fins and put them in the attic if you don't want to throw them away. If you look for reasons to justify to have your kids around the "oily rubber coming off in our hands. " and "rub off a black oily inky smear on everything they touch." , then yes, you probably are the ONLY person with this problem. In that case, I feel sorry for your kids.

Reply to
hierophant

I'm betting your mom hating paying the exhorbitant late fees many credit card and other companies charge nowadays. She knew she was losing competency and she was compensating by making sure her attention stayed focused on the task at had. I think it's wonderful that our brains and bodies can adapt to all the things that can go wrong with us but so sad to watch it happening to ones we love.

I am glad you realized how important is was to her to get the task done correctly and in a timely fashion and helped her to do what was important to her. I see lots of children who scold their declining parents instead, which is truly sad.

A blessing upon you for your honoring your parents.

I worry what will happen to all the single boomers out there when Old Age tracks them down.

"Eleanor Rigby died in a church and was buried along with her name, Nobody came."

Can you imagine what it would have been like for your mom without you to help her? I read more and more stories about seniors freezing to death, starving to death, dying from lack of A/C, getting sick because they can't afford their medications.

The worst are stories in the newspapers about seniors, many of them DIY types like many here, who, when they get too old to fix their own roofs or do their own painting, fall prey to home repair schemes because they have a hard time resisting the hard sell pitch. A much older friend than me (graduated West Point the year I was born!) bought an alarm system from (ex-Mormon) traveling salesmen who knocked on his door cold calling!!!!!

He was smarter than that when he was younger and sharper, but now, living alone, in terrible pain from legs blown out by years of marching (and handball!) he's easy meat for scam artists. It didn't take long for the system to fail and when he called the company, the person who answered said it had been sold and they could help him - by installing a new system from the new company. I asked him if he thought it was a good idea to buy from guys who could have been burglars, casing the neighbor to see who had alarms and who didn't.

Lots of the elderly folks in my neighborhood are finding that the pensions and assistance they were promised in their old age aren't coming. The equity in the companies they worked for and helped build evaporated when some Wall Street corporate takeover firm bought up their company, loaded it with outrageous debt, sucked the equity out of it, and threw it away when they had their fill. When Tony Soprano does it, it's bankruptcy fraud. When Wall Street Raiders do it, the same end results occur, but it's nice and legal. That, and a number of other dubious financial practices make money for *some* people but hurt a heck of a lot more.

In far too many cases taxpayers are left to foot the bill for the failed pension promises:

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"United's pensions had become an elephant-sized issue because for several years, United, like many companies, put little or no cash into its pension trust funds. Instead, United counted on credit for past contributions and overly optimistic assumptions about stock market gains to meet its pension obligations. But after the market plunged, United's pension funds were almost $10 billion in the red.

Through bankruptcy, United shifted the responsibility for paying its workers' pensions to a little known federal agency, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the PBGC, which insures failed pension plans.

How'd we get here from scuba fins? (-: In deference to our OT averse co-members, a reply (none's really needed though) should come in a renamed, OT thread, although I could make a connection from Home Repair to just about anything because it's such a broad topic.

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

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