I've embarked in earnest on a new project, inspired by the acquisition of a new "toy" - a cassette player that has a USB port where you can put in a thumb drive and play a cassette tape, and an MP3 file is created on the thumb drive from the cassette. I found this player in the Hammacher-Schlemmer catalog, and it was only $49, so I ordered it. The big advantage over using this instead of the old cassette player and Garage Band on the computer is that I can put in a tape of a Guilford service, start the tape and go off and do something else. When it comes to the end of side A, it just stops. Then when I get a chance, I can flip the cassette and start it up again. That time, I have to stay nearby and hear when the service ends, and turn off the cassette player. But otherwise, I don't have to sit there and watch over it, which I had to do using Garage Band. I can start a tape at night, before going to bed, for example, and finish it the next morning. Or just do it at random times during the day. So I have started to convert all the tapes from 1997, Shirley's and my last year as ministers at the Guilford Community Church. I can actually see my way now through all the tapes - over 400 of them! - because I don't have to sit there for an hour or more with each tape. I've already done five tapes in two days. If I could average 2 a day, I could be done in seven months - by the end of the year. But it's exciting to think I can at least be through 1997 in about a month or so. That would in itself be a wonderful archive to hand on to the church.
Getting the MP3 file onto the thumb drive is not the end of the job, however. I have to download that file on to my laptop that that I can properly label it with the date of the service and get it into an iTunes folder. From there I can burn a playable CD. I haven't decided exactly in what form to pass these files on to the church - CDs? Archival DVDs? Thumb drive? I don't need to resolve that just yet. It is enough to make the conversion, and have each file labeled and in iTunes. I am also making a printable file of a brief summary of each service, as a kind of index. That summary will include information on the basic theme of the sermon and the children's story, names of participants in the service and list the special music.
The box of cassettes for 1997
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