Re: Any experts on 1920s homelife?

Towse wrote:
>
> 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>

What she said.

--
Music is not supposed to be an elitist
product. We're not talking about Lexus
here.
-- Josh Bernoff
--
http://www.bobsloansampler.com:
Fiction, poetry, essays, MP3s, radio & TV interviews
Chapter 1 of "Home Call: A Novel of Kentucky"
3 Stories from "Bearskin to Holly Fork: Stories From Appalachia,"
& two new stories
And new photos
Latest Herald-Leader Column:
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/12318071.htm
MISSING MOUNTAINS: http://www.windpub.com/books/missing.htm

.

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