[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Odd requests



Those of you who've read my postings know that I deal with the history of
the construction equipment industry. Like all of us, I get periodic requests
for information, as well as leads to other resources for researchers to use.
This one takes the cake.

The office manager hands me an envelope and says with a snicker, "You've got
to see this." Its return address is a clipping from a newspaper horoscope.
First thing I pull out is a photo of a tombstone. "Okay," I think, "I have a
genealogist here," a rarity but not unknown here. Next comes a folded piece
of cardstock with a bundle of pine needles in it, and the question, "Have
you got pine trees with needles like these?" Next are several scraps of
paper with tiny, garbled writing. Afetr some effort, I was able to make out
that the fellow who sent this to us is not long for the world and sent the
photo of the tombstone to indicate where people who want information on the
particular brand of old equipment he has specialized in for forty years will
be able to contact him for help in the near future.

No, I haven't lost my marbles after sorting and describing 13,000 slides;
and this wasn't an April Fool's joke. This guy was serious.

The strangest part of it all has nothing to do with him. I play in a
dulcimer group, and one of our songs is an old Irish ballad called "Rosin
the Bow." The central character, as I just learned a week ago, is a dying
fiddler known as "Old Rosin the Bow," and the words of the song are his
instructions to his buddies about where he's going, what he wants them to do
with his body, and finally to go raise a glass in his memory after the
funeral. Poignant and creepy all at the same time.

Best wishes (in spite of the morbidity),

Thomas Berry, Archivist
Historical Construction Equipment Association
16623 Liberty Hi Road
Bowling Green, Ohio 43402
419-352-5616
tberry@wcnet.org

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>