I was telling someone recently that I had nearly all of my post-college e-mail still. I have all sent messages dating back to September 1996, and all received mail since May 1997 (that's when I stopped "emptying trash"). Up until late 2006, I used Eudora as my mail program at home. I switched to the Mac, and therefore Apple's mail program, at that time, and by sheer coincidence I also stopped hosting my own mail and moved it to Gmail via Google Apps.
When Google enabled IMAP for Gmail, a protocol that basically allows you to mirror mail on the server and on your computer, I realized that I could combine it all. My first attempt was to fire up Eudora on my old PC, and login. There were two problems. First was that ancient Eudora didn't talk to Google very well, second was that it didn't handle the formatting right or associate nicknames with real names or addresses. I couldn't get it to upload more than one message at a time, manually. Not an option for 25,000+ messages.
Then I found that some guy wrote a little app called Eudora Mailbox Cleaner. With a little tweaking of folder and file structures, this little thing could put all the attachments and embedded content, and your contacts, and rebuild it into Apple's Mail program. That was an obvious win since I knew Mail could do IMAP no problem.
The little app breezed through the messages in a couple of minutes, and just before I went to bed, I dragged those messages into the Gmail folders. Off it went! When I logged into the account this morning, I found they were all there and totally searchable. That is sweet. (It totals only 428 MB, in case you're wondering.)
So why would I want all that mail? Well, in some ways it's because I view it as portion of my history. History doesn't define you, I don't think, but experience does. There's a subtle difference. I like having a record of that experience.
Browsing through the mail was a somewhat dark experience at first because of the time frame. Mid-1997 was a pretty rough time for Stephanie and I, and that comes through in some of the messages. On the other hand, if you browse in the 1999 to mid-2001 range, life is really peachy.
It's funny that I went through a phase where I didn't capitalize circa 1997. We were so ridiculously immature back then, and I guess I understand now why friends in their 20's are so fucking neurotic and make silly decisions. I did it too! I can't even imagine how I'll feel when I'm 60.
No comments yet.