Re: Any experts on 1920s homelife?

Wildepad wrote:

1) This is for a short story. As it will not net a considerable
amount, and I am on a fixed income, paying someone is out of the
question.

re libraries (which I again recommend), let me tell you a story, Bob Sloan's story, actually.

<http://groups.google.com/group/misc.writing/msg/d04685b00e15ba8e?hl=en&;>

Bob posted in misc.writing several years ago about someone who'd had a huge impact on him as a kid and said he was looking for her, someone he hadn't seen in a very long time. He didn't have many facts about her. (Facts included in the note referenced above.) He'd tried finding his librarian. He'd asked people he knew from the time, people at the library. No one remembered anyone fitting his description. Everything turned up empty.

I asked him what "wretched Indiana factory town" he was talking about in his note. He probably thought I was just being sociable, but I had a plan. Knowing what town he was talking about, I sent an e-mail to the reference desk at the Carnegie library in his old town, asking if someone there might be willing to search up information on Bob's missing librarian. I gave them the facts that Bob had presented in his post.

Librarians are very cool people. I'm not a degreed librarian -- not having a Masters in Library Science -- but I worked in libraries for seven years -- through college and for a few years after graduation. I know what librarians are capable of and I know how they love a good mystery.

My librarian in Bob's Indiana town sleuthed around and asked other librarians, working and retired, about this mysterious librarian of Bob's and about six weeks later she got back to me with the name of a former children's librarian who fit Bob's description up to and including the fact that she was a bit of a writer and had had a popular local community program.

The librarian's name was unusual enough that I tried a Web search and found that the woman who was possibly Bob's librarian had moved eventually to NH and had retired from the local library there. I sent Bob the contact information for the children's librarian at that library and Bob contacted her. That children's librarian was able to come up with the contact information for the woman we were hoping was Bob's librarian.

Turns out that retired librarian was indeed Bob's missing librarian and Bob was able to say thank you to someone who'd made a big impact on him when he was young.

Not only is Bob's lost librarian story a neat one, but it reiterates why I keep saying hie thee to a library.

Librarians love this sort of puzzle and love helping people. They chose the profession they did because they love the research, they love mysteries, and they are exceptional people.

Where is your story taking place?

Find your library. <http://www.libdex.com/>

Send a note to the reference desk at the library, outlining the information you have and the questions you have.

Did people visit late at night to bachelor apartments in that town in the mid 1920s? Did people serve meals at home to entertain friends and family? Where is the cutting board for the kitchen? &c.

Asking someone like me who spent most of her years in the San Francisco Bay area doesn't make much sense, if your apartment building is in Lexington, KY. Asking someone in Lexington doesn't make much sense if your apartment building is in Madison, WI.

Librarians may have information in their local history room or could give you contact information for the local historical society. They may know people who grew up in the area, who are ninety-five, and who might be able to answer your questions.

Someone in the town your future-past traveler is living in is far more likely than someone on Usenet to have accurate answers to your questions.

E-mail doesn't cost you a dime.

Hie thee to a library.


--
Sal

Ye olde swarm of links: thousands of links for writers, researchers and the terminally curious <http://www.internet-resources.com/writers>
.

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