Scatterbrained History Becomes Me

I am starting this blog as a repository for my ever-growing collection of old letters, photographs, newspaper clippings, and other items of interest that I have begun collecting in the last year or so. I have heard some people refer to these types of items as "ephemera" but to me, that term seems to take away from the significance of these things. They may be from times past, and they may be random, but they were part of day-to-day life once. Maybe one day if I'm lucky, the scraps of paper around my computer will be interesting to someone trying to piece together who I was in my life. Looking around me, there are:

• receipts from an antique store and Trader Joe's
  
• Post-Its with indecipherable reminders to do things that I can't quite make out
  
• a threatening letter from Farmer's Insurance
• and a button I popped off of my pants.

One could surmise that I am a whimsical spender and scatterbrain who gets into rear-ends collisions after eating. And one might be anywhere from 50-100% correct.

Never one to be too interested in "history" as it was presented to me in textbooks, I avoided the subject other than to learn the things required for a grade. For a long time I had trouble finding a context that made the history I learned relevant. History sections of the bookstore have always seemed to mock me and try to pick fights with me as I walk past on my way to the self-help, I mean, literature section.

All of that changed with my grandfather John gave me a collection of letters written by his great uncle Ezra with the hope that I'd be able to transcribe them. Being a fast typist I agreed with enthusiasm, but realized soon enough that I was in way over my head. Way over. To begin with, there were about 300 letters, many of which were several pages long. Making matters more difficult, the letters were written in the late 1800s in a style of script which was completely unfamiliar to me. On top of that, the language of the time was very different. Most of his letters, which I will delve into on this blog if I don't get distracted first, discuss his attempts to make money in mine claims or land ownership or by being a supplier. He was a railway telegrapher who worked his way west as a station agent, and there were many different terms I had to learn in order to make sense of them. However, I eventually did plough through the letters. It took me a year and a half, but they are now back with my grandfather who will be presenting them to various historical societies. I scanned them all in order to have my own copies, and I will probably post some of them.

In the mean time, I will say that I am realistic about the possibility that no one will ever read this blog and if they do, it may be infinitely boring. At very least, it will probably be somewhat irritating. After all, I'm it's author.

Yours Most Resp'y,
Ezekiel Barzillai Smythe