Thursday
Nov092006
Dumpster Dived Vintage Ephemera
Thursday, November 9, 2006 at 2:42AM 
I was coming up the basement stairs early monday morning when I noticed something that looked like some papers on a mostly hidden ledge near the rafters. When I pulled them out and dusted them off, they turned out to be a little pile of very old coupons for discount film developing. From the looks of them they seemed from the erea of the first world war. Ås it turns out, this was a foreshadowing of bigger things to come.
An hour later I was one my way to a meeting at the 920 Cherry buildingwith my friend Dave to meet with Jonathan Bradford. As we came around the corner we noticed a large dumpster on the street in back of our house. When we took a look inside we knew right away that this was to be a very unsual find. For the next half hour we shamelessly rutted our way deeper and deeper into dust and dirt and precious old treasures. (When Dave went back to our house to get his car Brenda told him that Jonathan had called and would be a half hour late which gave us more time for our discovery.)
The picture here is one of many to be viewed on our flikr account. We were stunned by all the encredible cool stuff we found---quilts, letters and postcards, many dating back as far as 1909, little typwritter ribbon tins, oil paintings, 40's toy cars, hundred year old books....one of my favorite letters which is on Grand Rapids Press stationary, dated December 12th, 1918. The letter seems to be written by a young girl who has found her self with some idle time because some new telephones are being installed. She is writting her friend in anticipation of the Christmass get togethers they will be attending which will include young men recently back from the war which has only recently come to an end.
I am so thankful to be in the right place at the right time this week.
Reader Comments (6)
WOW!
Oh how wonderful! I'm little jealous but mostly glad you saved these things from the dump...
Miss dumpster diving.
what a treasure! i love ephemera.. and its innate way of throwing you into a calm nostalgiac mood. thanks for sharing your treasure!
Thank you for the call. So cool you found such great treasure. Put a smile on my face. Always rewarding when things come together in unexpected ways! Two odd parts making a beautiful whole.
I'm glad you saved this ephemera!! Old paper is often under-appreciated. I feature similar ephemera on my blog at www.ephemera.typepad.com
I enjoy your blog and thought this was a very cool post. Thanks for featuring it.
Thanks Marty. Went to your blog and was amazed at what seems to be a portal into a whole world of ephemera. I again feel like I have alot to discover, alot to learn.