"Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn."

-- Harriet Beecher Stowe

by Jami Petersen

This upcoming weekend we will celebrate the holiday. While many of us will gather for food and family, many others will spend the weekend remembering loved ones and precious past memories. It's at times like this I am thankful we have scrapbooking. It gives us all the opportunity to remember both the good times and bad.

Remembering is exactly what Dennis does in this week's article. He shares some intimate thoughts that will have you remembering the reasons why scrapbooking means so much.

Jami Petersen
newsletters@a-z.com

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Press Releases

News you can use about the latest media coverage of hot trends, noteworthy events and dynamic industry leaders. Learn more about the current headlines in arts and crafts by clicking on the title of each article segment.
 

PMDA Soldiers’ Angels Portraits of Love Project on NBC Nightly News. The PhotoImaging Manufacturers and Distributors Association (PMDA) has teamed with the Soldiers’ Angels volunteer organization to create the PMDA Soldiers’ Angels Portraits of Love Project. The goal of the Project is to provide 10,000 U.S. soldiers around the world with portraits of their families and loved ones this holiday season.

Retailer Kits Available From BasicGrey December 2009 -

Sugar Rush Double-Page Layout Retailer Exclusive Class Kit: This exclusive retailer class kit includes enough product for 12 students. Using brand-new papers and embellishments from the Sugar Rush™ collection, this class kit teaches students how to use BasicGrey’s newest embellishments including Varnish Stickers,™ Writer’s Block™ and Bloomers.™ Kit will also include instructions for three FREE greeting cards using leftover product from kit. As a bonus, retailers who purchase both new product class kits receive a 10% discount on their class kit order. Shipping Mid to Late December with the release of the Sugar Rush™ line!

Origins Tabbed Mini Album Class Kit. This exclusive retailer class kit includes enough product for 12 students. Using brand-new papers and embellishments from the Origins™ collection, this class kit teaches students how to use BasicGrey’s newest embellishments including Pieces™ and Clips.™ As a bonus, retailers who purchase both new product class kits receive a 10% discount on their class kit order. Shipping Mid to Late December with the release of the Origins™ line!

The Memory Tradeshow

The Memory Tradeshow is the premiere market for scrapbooking and related products, family history and digital imaging.

It is the most important gathering of this industry regionally, and it’s attracting executives from all sectors: manufacturers, retailers, distributors, suppliers, sales reps, designers and press. The show’s goal is to provide the highest ROI show within the industry with a greater focus on the business of the memory industry, education and best business practices.

Learn more and save >>

by Dennis A. Conforto, A-Z Media Group, Inc.

This morning as the sun rose I went to my son’s gravesite. As I gazed out over the hill side I saw countless printed pictures, flowers and American flags adorning the gravesites of war heroes. There were families of every background, income and culture that were paying their respects and trying to recapture a glimpse of an earlier time and place. Everywhere I looked I saw someone trying to remember someone they loved deeply, and in their own way honoring memories that although held strong may be starting to fade.

In my mind I was transported back in time to both happy and very sad days. It’s a powerful feeling when all those memories rush in like a large sweeping wave of your past. It’s as if your mind is flooded with the images, sounds, music, foods and feelings of your past.

It is at that moment you realize that you are the keeper of the past. You reason that the memories you have locked up within your heart and soul will be gone when you are, thus you must to pass it forward so that you and your past are not forgotten.

In a nutshell, this is why scrapbooking has become so important to me. It’s not just the pictures but the stories and feelings behind the scrapbook. It’s about what happened in between the pictures; it is the story of lives that matters to me.

Recently as I was visiting my son’s gravesite, I wrote down a memory that is part of my scrapbook story. Here is what I wrote:

“Yesterday I visited Jared’s gravesite. He has been laid to rest in an area that is dedicated to small children. I try to go there once a month or so. It’s not a sad experience or anything like that. I just like going there because it’s a peaceful place and I suppose it’s a place I am connected to. When I am there I think about others that I know who are laid to rest there as well.”

I get some of my best thinking done as I sit thinking about the events of my son’s short life and how those events have impacted my life. His gravesite is on the side of a small hill so I am always looking down into a small valley with a quickly rising hill on the other side.

As I look down I can see where my partner Gary Reif is laid to rest. It is an area that is surrounded by an iron fence in which he along with his parents now rest in peace. Nearly every day for 20 years Gary and I talked. It was a conversation I always looked forward too. He was always very thoughtful and careful in his remarks. In some ways we were more brothers than partners. I think of him often, finding myself tearing up because he was such a powerful influence in my life and I missed those daily talks we had.

A few days after Gary passed away I went to my son’s gravesite. I saw a small back hoe drive down the hill and start to dig a grave. It was right by where I knew Gary’s parents were laid to rest. I wondered if it was for Gary.

The person who was working this back hoe stopped and took what I guess was his lunch break, so I walked down to look at what was being done. I have to admit I was a little nervous as I approached this site that was being prepared. I had never looked down into an empty grave before. As I soberly walked to the very edge and looked down, I saw that the grave was deeper and darker than I had imagined it would be. It was almost unbelievable to think that I was looking down at the final resting place of this man I had learned to love. I was broken hearted, tearful and wished that since my early retirement from the company I had spent more time with him.

I slowly walked back up to my son’s gravesite and then drove away thinking I was done for the day. But I went to my office for about an hour and decided to go back to the cemetery. I sat there for maybe ten minutes when I noticed cars pulling up to where I thought Gary’s gravesite might be. Sure enough I began to see people that I knew gathering at the site. Then a hearse pulled up and a coffin was brought out and laid over the gravesite. From where I was at and the direction of the wind I could only hear that someone was talking but not what was being said. But it was ok; I was thinking in my mind what I would say about Gary.

One by one people at the graveside took a handful of dirt and rock and laid it on Gary’s coffin. It signified that as his body was laid to rest that rock would always remain next to Gary.

The coffin was lowered into the ground and then each person took a shovel full of dirt and placed it over Gary’s coffin. Even from where I was at I could hear rock hit the top of that wooden coffin like a hard ball hitting the side of a barn. I supposed it was the most sobering sound I have ever heard in my life until I heard a soft muffled sound as the coffin was covered. Then one by one they all left.

I sat there for the longest time thinking, is this what happens to all of us? It was such a stark contrast thinking about Gary alive, laughing, smiling and interacting with everyone around him. Then from nowhere men brought the back hoe and finished the burial process.

The man who drove the back hoe was the last man at the grave and started his slow journey up the hill. I thought I had to let this man know that Gary was someone special. So I jumped up on his back hoe while it was moving which startled him. I asked if he had a moment that I could share with him who he just laid to rest. He said he did…big mistake…because two hours later I was still talking to him about Gary and all of our adventures. Finally, I asked him to watch over Gary’s gravesite a little more than normal, which he agreed to do!

It seems the longer I live the more people I know who have been laid to rest in that place. Who knows maybe one day that will be the place I am laid to rest. But until that day happens I am happy to think about all these wonderful people that I love and miss. What are the chances that any of us really got to know each other? What if I was born earlier in time or later? Had that been the case, I would have never known Gary. The odds we knew each other were a billion to one, the odds that my son’s gravesite would be within eye site of Gary’s is even greater.

As I walked between my son’s gravesite and Gary’s I look down at the names of others and wondered who they all were, thinking I would never know any of them. Incredibly, yesterday, on the way back up to my son’s gravesite from Gary’s I saw a marker for Tye Cobb, one of the greatest baseball heroes of all time from the days of Babe Ruth. Now what are the odds of that?

For me this was a powerful experience, and so I wrote it down for my children to read one day. It may not mean all that much too them today, but one day it will and that thought makes me happy.

Today our industry stores should be as packed as the cemeteries of those who are keeping important memories alive. This weekend would have been a good weekend for the industry to be seen and heard because this is the weekend that millions look back and remember a past place and time.

So far I have seen nothing in the general news about our industry, no ads, no emails, no flyers, or signage or really anything to draw me into a scrapbooking store to say here is an industry that can help me remember.

One thing is for sure, just like people can’t know our stories unless we write them down, millions can’t know who we are as an industry unless we promote with one loud voice, “We can help you remember when!”

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Tragic Magic

Tragic Magic

The next Scrapbooking mystery takes readers back to New Orleans, where there are spookies, foodies—and crafty killers. Carmela, owner of Memory Mine scrapbook shop, and her best friend have a big project converting an old mansion into an unforgettable haunted house. But when Carmela’s client turns up dead, she finds herself in some deep gumbo again. Discover more Tragic Magic including recipes and scrapbooking tips.

Click here to learn more about this scrapbooking mystery...