Business Records, 1944-2006, in Milk Crates

[blackstone]

Finally got around to storing the paperwork from our family business. Ordered these colorful milk crates to replace the cardboard boxes that I had been using. Stacks neatly on the floor.

Zoom into the picture, and you can see that the first box includes correspondence from Blackstone to our store (Acme Electronic Co. in Springfield, Mass.).

I put our store telephone on the wall.

Don't know what I would ever do with this paperwork, but not ready to toss it.

 

[repairguy]

Good memories I’m sure. That’s a long time for a mom and pop operation. I sure miss that and the great service that went along with it due to the fact they truly wanted and appreciated your business.

 

[justjunque]

Hey, Fred.

I admire that you've kept all that paperwork all these years. Like you said; I don't know what you'll do with it. But, I have plenty of stuff that falls into the same category. I don't know what, if anything, I'll ever do with it. But, it has sentimental value for me.

Barry

 

[circlew]

Our local historical society has the records of several now defunct businesses. We have a special room for things related to local business, including some old business machines and furniture.

 

[launderess]

"Don't know what I would ever do with this paperwork, but not ready to toss it."

Might consider tackling scanning that paperwork to create a digital archive. Will make for easier and somewhat safer storage as paper will deteriorate over time.

Either digitalized or still in paper format maybe reach out to a state or other historical archive.

 

[blackstone]

Recently, a friend from high school reached out to me, about this very subject. He was faced with paperwork from his grandfather's business (one of the first textile businesses in Springfield). He donated them to Springfield historical museum. The museum has them in a separate collection. I suppose that it is available for public viewing, but I'm sure scanning would be a huge task.

 

[blackstone]

By the way....

These crates contain business correspondence and tax records, which is only a fraction of what I have saved. I also have filed away sales/service receipts; again going back to 1944 (or earlier, back when my father rode his bicycle to fix radios).

 

[launderess]

Yes, scanning any decent sized to large amount of material is quite a bit of work.

Some places have a person or persons whose only task is to digitize paper matter for archival. Then you have places like Goggle books, Newspapers.org, Internet Archive and others that do it as well.

There are services or persons that will archive pictures or printed matter into digital format for a price. Not cheap, but compared to doing work oneself comes down to how much one's time is worth I suppose.

 

[combo52]

Saved business records

I have saved all the customer receipts since Jeff and I started the business in January of 1979.

It’s sometimes fun to go back and read over what we did when we started the business. We only charged $15 for a house call now We’re we are charging $92.

It’s need to go back and read over receipts sometimes but so many of the customers are now dead. It’s a little bit sad.

I recently removed a late 70s caloric gas stove from a customers house and he told me that I had told him that we had taken it out of the water gate condominium, and out of Ruth Bader Ginsburg‘s apartment I had forgotten about that.

I’m gonna go back and look through the receipts because he knows when he bought the stove from us to see if I can document that I actually came from her apartment. Somebody might want to have her former stove.

I figure if I ever get really bored I can look through all the receipts, I know there’s well over 100,000 receipts.

John

 

[blackstone]

First TV that my father sold

I remember him saying that he saved the first TV that he ever sold (taken back in trade, I would assume). Might be one of these Stewart-Warners. I have the receipts; but I have to check serial numbers to be sure.