Mood: Caffeinated & Curious
The Morning Sound: The rustle of paper against a cold floor.
The Midnight Gift – When Hughey and I descended the stairs this morning, we found the front door had been visited. Someone, a ghost of the night or a very early traveler left a sturdy wooden crate sitting right on the mat. No note. Just a weight to it that promised a morning of discovery.
Inside was a treasure trove of ephemera: vintage bookmarks, theater stubs from the 1940s, and old stationary. To a Mystery Hunter, this is better than gold. It’s the “connective tissue” of history, the little bits of life people leave behind in their books.
A Discovery in the Dust as Hughey investigated a particularly interesting scent on a 1920s library card, I pulled out a handwritten slip of paper tucked between two leather bookmarks. It was a poem by Meg Hutchinson called Seeing Stars.
The lines caught me right in the center of my chest:
Evening light on a gravel path
I could be scared but I’ve had
enough of that
Big old moon rising up
Even in this light
you might see scars
But me, yeah me
I’m only seeing stars.
It made me think of the “scars” on the items I sell, you know, the dog-eared pages, the scratched vinyl, Hughey’s own missing leg.
They aren’t defects; they’re the story.
A Light in the Distance as I read those lines reminded me instantly of a project a friend of mine is currently breathing life into. It’s called Fennlight. It’s a series of books and a digital archive centered around a girl who captures the stars through her camera lens.
Even though it’s a work in progress, much like my own cataloging of this new crate, it’s worth keeping an eye on the horizon for it. You can find the first flickers of it at fennlight.com.
The Afternoon’s Labor I’ll be spending the rest of the day with a pair of archival tweezers and a magnifying glass, sorting the rest of this midnight crate. I suspect there are more secrets buried at the bottom. I’ll be listing the most “uncommon” pieces of this ephemera in the shop throughout the week.
If you find yourself looking at the stars tonight, remember: the light you’re seeing traveled a long way to get to you.
Much like the things on these shelves.
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