In art, filmmaking, television and photography, the term “negative space” refers to “the empty space around and between the subject(s) of an image. In graphic design this is known as white space. ”

But as usual, my negative space doesn’t follow the rules.

Most of our readers have heard by now that The Ada News has completed our move to the Mini Mall in the 100 block of North Broadway, just across the street from the original home of The Ada News. We think this move is very positive.

It wasn’t, however, without a couple of down sides.

We definitely have less elbow room, but that works okay since I work in the field and from home most of the time. We have less storage room, but I happen to think that more storage usually means more stuff we often don’t really need. And we have less closet space.

Okay, that last one became a problem. As the time neared to finish the move, at first the plan was to have the movers take the four large steel file cabinets full of photographic negatives from before I started at the paper in 1988 – 1940s through the late 1980s – and haul them to the new digs.

Sadly, upon surveying and weighing the cabinets, the plan fell through, as would have the stairs if they had tried to muscle all that weight to the upstairs storage.

With a deadline looming, I stuffed all the negatives – thousands – into every box I could find and brought them home, where I honestly don’t have room for them.

I thought about what to do with all this film, which is also an irreplaceable record of our community’s history.

Hmm. History. Hist… Of course! I’ll call the Pontotoc County Historical and Genealogical Society! I did, and they said they would LOVE to have the negatives.