Twenty years ago, Calpe U3A set up its website. The pages, pictures and text from those days seem to have been lost. Where did they go?
Before looking back at what there was in those days and what became of it, it could be useful to explain what a website is and how it works (only a hundred words or so; be patient). A website like ours consists of content (like text and pictures) and structure (articles with dates, titles, and navigation links between them). Like any other website, the U3A Calpe site’s content and structure are stored (‘hosted’) on a computer (called a server). The website is managed using a software system (content management system, CMS) on the server. In the pre-Internet era, this would be a team of editors working in an office and print shop and sending out the magazine by lorry. Now, we have a CMS working inside a computer and sending it out over the network.
Where did our website content go to? Over the years, the website has moved from one CMS and server to another. This move may be to cut costs or because those of us who operate it are more familiar with another CMS. Unfortunately, these moves often mean that, as with moving to a new house, precious belongings (content and structure) are left behind and lost. Thus our old website has been lost, more than once.
Can we get it back? Fortunately, we are saved from our carelessness by an unsung hero of the web: The Internet Archive’s Wayback machine roams around the web from site to site, unseen and unnoticed, taking snapshots of websites as their content changes and storing them away in its archive. Thanks to the work of the Internet Archive, you can find the first version of our website at https://web.archive.org/web/20040823031106/https://www.u3acalpe.org/index.html. Unfortunately it doesn’t store the pictures, which is why there are none in this article. By the way, the Internet Archive is not run by the government; it depends on donations by people like us (donations page).
From the archive, it we find that around May 2004, the new website was launched. The newsletter says, “Our new, major step forward is our very own website www.u3acalpe.org. This is due to the massive amount of hard work by Gill Moorcroft.”
There was a list of committee members, a list of groups and their activities, travel news, the minutes of the last meeting, and the first online newsletter was published by our then President, Mary Anderton.
Many of the groups are still going, but many seem to have been lost: Baby Equipment Loan Service, Bowling 10-Pin, Bridge, Bridge Beginners, Calligraphy, Chess Beginners, Computer Class, Creative Writing, Discussion, Drama, Flower Pressing/uses, French, Gardening, Genealogy, History of Spain & Local, Holistic Experience, Home Furnishings, Jazz/Blues Appreciation, Literary all sorts, Mosaics, Music Appreciation, Needlecrafts, Painting – Watercolours, Painting all mediums, Pentanc, Snooker, Spanish – following, Spanish Beginners, Spanish Beginners, Spanish Conversation, Spanish – following, Spanish – Following, Spanish, Table Tennis, Travel/Trips, Video Hire, Walking – Short, WW1 History. That’s seven different Spanish groups.
There was a Spanish History Group. Two groups formed at the beginning of the year, one to look specifically at local history and the other to address Spanish history in general. The two merged with over thirty members. The group met at the Paradero de Ifach Social Club, which, like the group, unfortunately, is now history, too.
The Gardening Group members took turns to host a visit to their gardens, balconies and terraces. Other outings included a trip to Dick & Clodagh Handscombe’s Garden (alias Greenfingers, writers for the Costa Blanca News) and a visit to a local Garden Centre.
Travel was already an important part of U3A Calpe: “In the time that the U3A has been in existence, we have travelled to small mountain nearby villages, like Alcala del Jucar, “the Grand Canyon of Spain”, or the unforgettable Moors and Christians of Bocairente with its hand made stone bull ring, as well as some of the major cities – Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. We have eaten paella produced from various cottages in Margarida and survived the downpour of the century when visiting Safari Aitana and looked in vain for wild beasties in the Cazorla mountains.”
The minutes of the General Meeting mention, “To liaise with the … Ayuntamiento and the Casa de Cultura, Calpe, to ensure the smooth running of the monthly meetings.” An issue that hasn’t changed in the intervening years.
Of course, this is only information gleaned from the website. U3A Calpe had already been going for two years. You can read that history on the current Our Story page.
I would like to think that U3A Calpe will still be running and conserving its history another twenty years from now.
