Mama Mia... maybe

A trend I've been loving recently has been the use of View-Master Picture Reels on scrap pages.  Not the stamps of reels, not the chipboard reels, the "reel" deal please.  I was wondering where I could get my hands on a few (ebay of course) and thinking about whether I really needed any.  I mean, really?  I need more?  And then today, while spending a few minutes perusing our garage, I decided to take a peek in some old storage bins I have from childhood.  I knew there were a few old, dusty but can't- be-parted-with books in them and a few slightly forgotten 45's.  What I'd totally forgotten was this bag. 

 

When I picked it up, it crackled insanely- the lining was a plasticky coating that just disintegrated.  However, I knew what else was in it but I'd forgotten the volume.  PAYDIRT... or was it.

I thought they were all falling apart (they're almost all from the 50's and 60's- they SHOULD be falling apart after all these years!) and had no problem tacking a few together for use- hey!  Disney World reels on the pages that will come from this winter's Disney trip?!  SWEET!  But then... the truth.  They're not falling apart.  They're PRISTINE!  The envelopes look like crap but the reels are in excellent condition.  I must have been SO much more anal as a child than I remember (I put a bit of red on the bottom of one foot of each of my Star Wars figures so I knew which were mine and which were the boys'- I didn't want them claiming my exceptionally, clean, politely played-with ones, leaving me stuck with their scratched and demolished ones... I even still have all of the guns.  Yeah, I was THAT kid.)  I remember looking at these reels and I don't understand how they're in such amazing condition.  There are two that have potential- an old Tom & Jerry and a Spike & Tyke, as well as a few Donald Duck films that must have come unglued... all of the film fragments and the reel are in an envelope that in my pre-teen writing, I labelled "Pieces of film and reals".  Seeing that tells me a lot about why I am the way I am today.  LOL.

So.  My dilemma.  I HATE to destroy old things- I do.  I want to keep them useable.  Why?  Who's going to EVER use these?!  Dunno but it's like tearing a book- it just never feels right.  I guess it's just a bit of irretrievable history and once it's gone, it's gone.  But again, what am I EVER going to do with these?  Any one else ever have these issues?