WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:08.119 Hello, I'm welcomed stories all the time. The lad you 2 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:11.640 are here, Let's get into it retirement. I used to 3 00:00:11.679 --> 00:00:14.519 think mend a slow and winding a clock gently running down. 4 00:00:15.119 --> 00:00:17.160 But here I am half hidden behind the battered oak 5 00:00:17.160 --> 00:00:19.800 front desk of the Heritage mel City Museum, counting seconds 6 00:00:19.800 --> 00:00:22.160 to closing. The airsoft with dust motes in the comforting 7 00:00:22.199 --> 00:00:25.079 scent of old wood and handled paper. It's barely three 8 00:00:25.079 --> 00:00:28.320 in the afternoon. Beside me, mister Lawdon from the model 9 00:00:28.359 --> 00:00:30.879 Real Society is what's poetic about the elegant of nineteenth 10 00:00:30.879 --> 00:00:33.520 century potato peelers? And now let his voice drift over me. 11 00:00:34.079 --> 00:00:36.520 I've always liked how regular visitors treat the collection as 12 00:00:36.520 --> 00:00:39.119 a familiar conversation. The same delighted bors in front of 13 00:00:39.119 --> 00:00:41.920 Missus Burge's patent umbrella stand, the same sire on the 14 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:45.039 massively used as sell rotch a cheese cutter. There's something 15 00:00:45.079 --> 00:00:48.200 soothing about the evidence of past invention. I'm about to 16 00:00:48.200 --> 00:00:49.719 offer Lord in a cup of cool tea when the 17 00:00:49.719 --> 00:00:52.000 main doors push open, letting in a square of sun 18 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:54.960 and a scuffle of coal. City are our newest volunteer, 19 00:00:55.119 --> 00:00:57.960 A third year engineering student named Sam breezes him with 20 00:00:57.960 --> 00:01:00.920 a backpack and a tangle of enthusiasm. I call out 21 00:01:00.960 --> 00:01:03.520 a hello, and he flashes me a grin, already fishing 22 00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:06.120 for the badge labeled Tempcreu from the tray. I take 23 00:01:06.159 --> 00:01:08.599 the opportunity to stand and stretch my legs one step 24 00:01:08.599 --> 00:01:11.879 for every year after sixty. Habit drags my gezebeyond the 25 00:01:11.920 --> 00:01:14.280 desk rail and into the grand display hall, where worn 26 00:01:14.319 --> 00:01:17.959 fourboards patch together antique curiosities and so much well worn 27 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:21.719 civic pride. That's when I see it, the old weaving loom. 28 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:24.840 I freeze him, blink, more out of habit than true disbelief. 29 00:01:25.439 --> 00:01:27.680 There it is, I'm mistakably the rile at loom, an 30 00:01:27.719 --> 00:01:30.319 oakend iron construction we'd wrapped in cotton sheeting and signed 31 00:01:30.319 --> 00:01:33.599 into storage last week. I have personally cataloged and wheeled 32 00:01:33.599 --> 00:01:35.239 it down to the side cell at, double checked the 33 00:01:35.239 --> 00:01:38.840 lining against pest, sipped it into hibernation. Now it sitting 34 00:01:38.879 --> 00:01:41.680 pride of place beneath the mezzanine window, gleaming slightly in 35 00:01:41.719 --> 00:01:45.439 a puddle of winter light. I step closer, almost on autopilot, 36 00:01:45.480 --> 00:01:48.000 half listening as Sam verrs toward the Marvels of Communication 37 00:01:48.079 --> 00:01:50.200 showcase with a hopeful want me to fix that jam. 38 00:01:50.280 --> 00:01:53.560 Ticker to day Emmerse Tolmley. There's a standing sign by 39 00:01:53.560 --> 00:01:56.920 the loom. Something I haven't seen before. Not my hand raiding, 40 00:01:57.159 --> 00:02:00.040 not one of my olds slightly over long labels. This 41 00:02:00.120 --> 00:02:02.120 plaque claims Salem as the scent piece of the famed 42 00:02:02.120 --> 00:02:05.560 City Unification Festival nineteen twenty eight, tied to a ceremonial 43 00:02:05.560 --> 00:02:09.159 weaving that joined mill workers, civic leaders, and immigrant artisans 44 00:02:09.159 --> 00:02:11.840 in a shared act of community creation. I run a 45 00:02:11.879 --> 00:02:14.800 fingernail over the curst edge of the car stock. None 46 00:02:14.840 --> 00:02:16.680 of this is in the inventory, nor is it in 47 00:02:16.719 --> 00:02:19.680 any of the oral histories filed in the supplementary folders. 48 00:02:20.120 --> 00:02:22.960 Good cattle registress their memory, but they worshiped their documentation. 49 00:02:23.560 --> 00:02:26.199 I double check everything. That's how I made it through 50 00:02:26.240 --> 00:02:29.080 twenty nine years at the College Library before the great downsizing. 51 00:02:29.639 --> 00:02:31.960 So I am careful not to betray more than mil curiosity. 52 00:02:32.039 --> 00:02:35.039 Okaving this moment alongside all the museums of the gentle oddities, 53 00:02:35.639 --> 00:02:38.800 Perhaps Miss s Holland, our indefatigable docent, decided to offer 54 00:02:38.840 --> 00:02:42.560 the luminnu narrative. Perhaps a grunt funded intent as misinterpreted 55 00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:45.240 the dusty Createive City Festival papers in the annex loft. 56 00:02:45.879 --> 00:02:48.919 Or perhaps I am though the thought needles misremembering. After all, 57 00:02:49.439 --> 00:02:52.639 I look for more in the central showcase, where that 58 00:02:52.719 --> 00:02:55.919 immigrant innovators displayed always sat as spot the Kosokov typewriter 59 00:02:56.039 --> 00:02:59.199 in nineteen oh six. Beauty with ornate cyrilla keys. Today 60 00:02:59.240 --> 00:03:01.599 a share space, not with the navy blue walking trunk 61 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:04.120 from Odissa, but instead with four old fymen's badges in 62 00:03:04.159 --> 00:03:07.120 a pibble shadow box. Heroes of Public Service, Collaboration and 63 00:03:07.199 --> 00:03:10.719 Safety nineteen seventeen, nineteen forty two. The labels are the 64 00:03:10.759 --> 00:03:13.840 museum's style, but the pairings aren't. A glance at Sam, 65 00:03:13.879 --> 00:03:16.039 who gives me a thumbs up and leans over the typewriter, 66 00:03:16.199 --> 00:03:18.039 perking at the keys as if he expects them to 67 00:03:18.120 --> 00:03:21.000 chirp a greeting. For a moment, the floor feels less 68 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:25.080 than solid. Not frightening, exactly, more like standing at top 69 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:26.919 a riverstone when the water's up and you're trying to 70 00:03:26.960 --> 00:03:29.360 see how far you can look without falling in. I 71 00:03:29.479 --> 00:03:31.719 run a hand along the desk edge and matter, someone's 72 00:03:31.759 --> 00:03:35.759 been created this week. Sam barely glances up the day 73 00:03:35.840 --> 00:03:39.840 lands softly into small routines, does settles A few visitors leave, 74 00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:42.400 I answer an email about the upcoming rotary club tour 75 00:03:42.439 --> 00:03:45.400 in the stuttering kidance of our ancient desktop, All the 76 00:03:45.439 --> 00:03:48.319 while my mind tips toward the question I don't say elloud. 77 00:03:48.360 --> 00:03:50.919 Is the museum quietly rewriting its own stories? Or am 78 00:03:50.919 --> 00:03:53.360 I watching this slow collective erosion of memory to kind 79 00:03:53.360 --> 00:03:56.520 that leaves only rounded edges smooth over time. At five, 80 00:03:56.639 --> 00:03:59.960 as Spotmansus Howland hunched over the guide binder, pen in hand, 81 00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:03.360 scribbling new notes beside an entry marked festival loom story importance. 82 00:04:04.039 --> 00:04:06.639 The city outside is beginning. Its hesitants bring ice washing 83 00:04:06.680 --> 00:04:09.759 into channels, streets carrying the muffled remonstrations of buses and 84 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:13.039 the half spirited cheer of high schoolers. I paused, just 85 00:04:13.120 --> 00:04:15.319 once to stare back at the loom, hypnotized by the 86 00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:17.360 shuffle of its shuttle, as if it might start whirring 87 00:04:17.439 --> 00:04:20.399 or blink itself further into place. The museum is not 88 00:04:20.439 --> 00:04:22.879 a place for suddenness, and yet here it is a change, 89 00:04:22.920 --> 00:04:25.360 subtle but complete, and more deliberate than any mistake could 90 00:04:25.360 --> 00:04:28.480 account for. The heritage mel City Museum is a converted 91 00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:31.279 red brick factory, more windows than walls on three sides, 92 00:04:31.399 --> 00:04:33.600 perched two blocks from the main avenue like a dignified 93 00:04:33.639 --> 00:04:37.000 old captain court between changing tides. Its seas face still 94 00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:39.399 bears the faint painted letters of a company name, visible 95 00:04:39.439 --> 00:04:42.959 only on October mornings, when the folk is just so inside. 96 00:04:43.120 --> 00:04:44.800 Most of the civic pride and all of the funding 97 00:04:44.879 --> 00:04:47.600 is patch or could grant. Here it bequests their annual donations, 98 00:04:47.600 --> 00:04:50.319 tricking and from the descendants of mayors or district shopkeepers, 99 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:54.240 volunteers due almost everything, from accessioning dusty board games to 100 00:04:54.279 --> 00:04:57.800 guiding poetry classes for visiting third graders. It's a place 101 00:04:57.800 --> 00:04:59.759 built on minor miracles and on the labor of those 102 00:04:59.839 --> 00:05:02.040 here you fine meaning in small resistance is rescuing a 103 00:05:02.040 --> 00:05:04.759 clock from the landfall, clarifying a family story, keeping the 104 00:05:04.839 --> 00:05:07.879 light on another winter. I first came here a decade ago, 105 00:05:08.079 --> 00:05:10.199 right after the college library was shrunk to a digital 106 00:05:10.240 --> 00:05:12.399 filing cabinet, and I was dismissed with the check a 107 00:05:12.439 --> 00:05:15.480 handjache and a list of teaching opportunities that never arrive. 108 00:05:16.079 --> 00:05:18.720 The museum called to me, quiet, stubborn, to finally useful. 109 00:05:19.240 --> 00:05:23.439 Here I could slip into familiar processes, locking donations, repairing spines, 110 00:05:23.480 --> 00:05:27.680 translating half legible accession cards into spreadsheet columns. Most days 111 00:05:27.839 --> 00:05:30.240 I sit at the desco, win myself for storage. Nook's 112 00:05:30.240 --> 00:05:34.639 happiest when order emerges from historical clutter. We're a small team, myself, 113 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:37.839 missus Holland, a dozen of dubs, age and effescent memory 114 00:05:37.839 --> 00:05:40.360 who relishes spinning tails whether or not they pass scholarly 115 00:05:40.439 --> 00:05:44.720 muster this. Lewis Unnike stodian who writes poetry nobody is read, 116 00:05:44.720 --> 00:05:47.879 and claims the building collects more ecchoes than dust. Sam, 117 00:05:48.120 --> 00:05:50.759 who joined two months ago, fixes out of true wheels 118 00:05:50.759 --> 00:05:54.959 on old bascles and rewires foggy lanterns. Sometimes a retired mayor, 119 00:05:55.040 --> 00:05:58.959 ron's aide, civikiro's presentation, or school teacher pitches in after grading. 120 00:05:59.480 --> 00:06:01.600 It's not just the people you learned to catalog, it's 121 00:06:01.600 --> 00:06:05.800 their rhythms. Wednesday, Missess Helen arrives at ininsharp lemon, kick 122 00:06:05.800 --> 00:06:08.160 in hand, and tidy is the glass cabinets, even when 123 00:06:08.199 --> 00:06:11.759 knows nothing to tidy. Thursday Lewis Polish's storn ups, humming 124 00:06:11.759 --> 00:06:15.120 a tune I never recognize. Friday, Sam spends a shift 125 00:06:15.160 --> 00:06:17.959 deconstructing a wind up phonograph, hoping it will some day 126 00:06:17.959 --> 00:06:21.399 play again. The docent's official guide is about a blue binder, 127 00:06:21.600 --> 00:06:23.759 each page type decades ago and frisked up with side 128 00:06:23.800 --> 00:06:26.759 notes in every color. Ny W Placardias John To explains 129 00:06:26.759 --> 00:06:30.439 city picnic pee thirteen possible errors. The storage system is 130 00:06:30.480 --> 00:06:32.959 even more idiosyncratic. Boxes in the cellar labeled in two 131 00:06:33.279 --> 00:06:36.759 sometimes three scripts. Loft shelves havehazardly drilled in after a 132 00:06:36.839 --> 00:06:39.839 leaky roof. For pair, anatole curio cabinet against a wall 133 00:06:39.839 --> 00:06:42.040 that nobody but Missess Helen has a right key forer. 134 00:06:42.680 --> 00:06:45.639 The locked cabinet is a perennial source of rooms among interns. 135 00:06:46.279 --> 00:06:48.959 Our visitors are mostly friends of the volunteers, the occasional 136 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:52.600 local researcher, a few ep history students looking for primacy sources. 137 00:06:53.279 --> 00:06:55.639 Some days a third grade class trapes is threw on 138 00:06:55.680 --> 00:06:58.759 their annual Community Legacies unit, more interested in a candy 139 00:06:58.839 --> 00:07:01.319 machine downstairs than the un letted diagrams of the eighteen 140 00:07:01.439 --> 00:07:04.879 ninety four flood. The museum is a little confusing to navigate. 141 00:07:04.879 --> 00:07:07.639 The corridor leads southeast, and yet two doors later seems 142 00:07:07.639 --> 00:07:09.800 to parallel the main hole. The stairwell to the mezzanines 143 00:07:09.839 --> 00:07:13.639 sometimes feels as though tranquiors elongated since last week. Things 144 00:07:13.680 --> 00:07:17.319 move slowly in the city outside. Stores close without much fanfare, 145 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:21.439 Jobs drift away or return under different names. What remains 146 00:07:21.480 --> 00:07:24.199 is history and the stories documented or half remember that 147 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:26.600 people bring with them, desperate that something of theirs will 148 00:07:26.600 --> 00:07:29.120 be worth the calling. But one thing above all gives 149 00:07:29.120 --> 00:07:31.399 these stories the particular flavor, at least from me, the 150 00:07:31.399 --> 00:07:33.279 faith that what's written to I must stand, even if 151 00:07:33.279 --> 00:07:35.800 only for a moment. I have always put my trust 152 00:07:35.800 --> 00:07:38.360 in records, in the safety of re seats, museum cards, 153 00:07:38.399 --> 00:07:41.920 and filing drawers. That's why, after closing with the evening, 154 00:07:42.040 --> 00:07:43.759 like catching the spine of the blue binder just so, 155 00:07:43.959 --> 00:07:46.720 I decide to check It takes all my restraint not 156 00:07:46.800 --> 00:07:48.439 to make a bee line for the Akathi. Instant the 157 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:52.000 last physical leaves, I linger refilling the candy bowl by 158 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:54.920 the door, pretending to order cleaning supplies on the battered computer, 159 00:07:55.240 --> 00:07:57.399 until some vanishes into the back with a spare bulb. 160 00:07:57.959 --> 00:08:00.600 I descend into the lowest storage room, the cell la proper, 161 00:08:00.800 --> 00:08:03.160 my stets echoing on a half spiral staircase that always 162 00:08:03.199 --> 00:08:06.040 makes my knees creak in unhappy sympathy. The air below 163 00:08:06.079 --> 00:08:08.360 is dense with the scent of cardboard and the unmistakable 164 00:08:08.360 --> 00:08:11.240 tun of something recently clean badly in the l row, 165 00:08:11.480 --> 00:08:13.399 nestled between a dented hat mold and a crate of 166 00:08:13.399 --> 00:08:16.319 old library checkout stamps, I find it the inventory car tray. 167 00:08:16.920 --> 00:08:19.800 I flip rapidly looking for the ralet loom. There it 168 00:08:19.839 --> 00:08:22.279 is cream card, my own careful notations in blue ink, 169 00:08:22.439 --> 00:08:26.800 dated last Thursday. Sign into storage, condition check completed by S. Townley, 170 00:08:26.839 --> 00:08:30.199 is poured by Salm Marties initials on the line. I 171 00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:33.080 tick in a stored box. I hold the card up. 172 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:37.200 Familiar neatness of my own hand feels undeniable, steady. There 173 00:08:37.279 --> 00:08:39.159 is even a small coffee ring at the corner, a 174 00:08:39.159 --> 00:08:42.120 familiar accident. But up in the display hole, the loom 175 00:08:42.120 --> 00:08:44.320 commands the center of the room. Its story changed its 176 00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:47.600 purpose for written. I take a brisk breath, preparing the careful, 177 00:08:47.799 --> 00:08:49.879 evidence based script of someone who knows the weight of 178 00:08:49.879 --> 00:08:53.200 being right too many times. Upstairs, Sam is replacing a 179 00:08:53.200 --> 00:08:55.720 bulb in the ceiling gallery. I raise the card and 180 00:08:55.759 --> 00:08:59.399 approach determinedly, casual. Do you remember putting the Loom into 181 00:08:59.399 --> 00:09:04.279 storage last Thursday. Sam grins that big mostrosity. Of course, 182 00:09:04.399 --> 00:09:05.879 she got stuck in the ramp and I had to 183 00:09:05.919 --> 00:09:07.759 lift the left side. Didn't think we'd be seeing it 184 00:09:07.799 --> 00:09:10.120 for a while, so you noticed it's out there on 185 00:09:10.159 --> 00:09:13.960 the floor again, I say, measuring my tone. He squintced 186 00:09:13.960 --> 00:09:18.039 toward the display, considers, then shrugs, ha, I guess you're right. 187 00:09:18.159 --> 00:09:20.360 Did somebody bring it out for a skull tour or something. 188 00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:23.080 There's a note of amusement in his voice. He looks 189 00:09:23.080 --> 00:09:26.039 a bit like a golden retrieve, a court middake. Probably 190 00:09:26.039 --> 00:09:28.559 missus Howland's idea, she said, the Loom story should get 191 00:09:28.600 --> 00:09:32.519 more attention. This label is new. I point out Unification 192 00:09:32.639 --> 00:09:35.200 festival centerpiece that wasn't there last week, and a sign 193 00:09:35.240 --> 00:09:38.360 in the official card is in storage. Some laughs, running 194 00:09:38.360 --> 00:09:41.039 a hand through his hair. You need a vacation, a 195 00:09:41.120 --> 00:09:43.519 mess t Maybe the museum just knows what will make 196 00:09:43.559 --> 00:09:46.320 people happy. He hands me a screwdriver for the sticky 197 00:09:46.360 --> 00:09:49.879 bulletin case and ducks away. No larms, no deep frowns. 198 00:09:50.519 --> 00:09:53.000 That's how the place itself seems to want it. An 199 00:09:53.039 --> 00:09:54.799 air might come up the works, but he it is 200 00:09:54.840 --> 00:09:56.960 always a work around, change a label, but just a cord, 201 00:09:57.120 --> 00:09:59.799 let a story smooth itself into order. I slipped the 202 00:09:59.799 --> 00:10:02.440 in intory card back into a slot, forcing myself not 203 00:10:02.480 --> 00:10:06.360 to dwell. But that gentle, persistent static of curiosity returns 204 00:10:06.440 --> 00:10:09.360 louder this time. Surely, cataloging accuracy means more than just 205 00:10:09.480 --> 00:10:12.200 keeping up with a tide of labels and guesses. For me, 206 00:10:12.440 --> 00:10:15.799 it always has, and I find myself not merely un settled, 207 00:10:15.799 --> 00:10:19.840 but inexplicably engaged. I stay behind after Sam leaves, using 208 00:10:19.879 --> 00:10:23.200 back scheduled as an excuse. The museum had always been 209 00:10:23.200 --> 00:10:25.320 a haven for people with spare time and spare attention. 210 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:28.159 If there was a detail out of place, I'd find it. 211 00:10:28.720 --> 00:10:31.840 I moved through the cases systematically. I keep a clipword 212 00:10:31.879 --> 00:10:33.879 in one hand and an official list of the major 213 00:10:33.919 --> 00:10:36.279 exhibits in the other. Corpeted from last month's flaw plan 214 00:10:36.919 --> 00:10:39.559 though founder stable display now features of grants damp press 215 00:10:39.559 --> 00:10:42.080 I've only ever seen pictured in storage, and the handredton 216 00:10:42.120 --> 00:10:44.120 label beneath it claims it was used by a Burrow 217 00:10:44.200 --> 00:10:46.480 youth to print truce tickets following a labor dispute. I've 218 00:10:46.519 --> 00:10:49.039 never heard mentioned. The photograph at the back of The 219 00:10:49.159 --> 00:10:51.480 final Truce Dance, according to its label, shows a sea 220 00:10:51.519 --> 00:10:53.840 of faces, and I'm certain I recognize none of the 221 00:10:53.879 --> 00:10:57.879 city notables they'd memorized in preparatory tours. In a gallery corner, 222 00:10:58.120 --> 00:11:00.679 a neat case labeled eighteen nineties Western Union key now 223 00:11:00.679 --> 00:11:03.399 holds an object of mystery. A small golden Victory coin 224 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:06.759 on its back is engraved in a pleasing serif awarded 225 00:11:06.799 --> 00:11:10.360 for bravery hill Vel Junction nineteen o one as provements. 226 00:11:10.399 --> 00:11:13.759 Card is in someone else's handwriting, smoothly inserted between telegraph 227 00:11:13.840 --> 00:11:16.320 key returned to donor hand coin on loan from Madsen 228 00:11:16.399 --> 00:11:19.600 accession nineteen eighty three. I try to recall if I've 229 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:21.799 ever seen this coin or heard mention of Hillville Junction, 230 00:11:21.919 --> 00:11:25.000 but my mind returns a blank. The docent spattered guide 231 00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:27.039 binder is propped on the chair in the central gallery, 232 00:11:27.039 --> 00:11:29.720 open to suggested to a rep. Updated. The page is 233 00:11:29.759 --> 00:11:33.799 thick with blue pen corrections, timelines, notes below festival loom. 234 00:11:33.919 --> 00:11:36.960 Someone's added, be sure to mention significance of weaving. Asked 235 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:41.600 for participant stories, I flick back through older pages previous months. 236 00:11:41.639 --> 00:11:45.360 Narrative runs Loom donated from Rylet mail rescue during dan sizing, 237 00:11:45.559 --> 00:11:48.399 not used in any ceremony. There's a thin line through 238 00:11:48.440 --> 00:11:51.200 those words and a new skirt layered above. In the 239 00:11:51.200 --> 00:11:54.480 first four vault, storage is as always confusing, Chelson are 240 00:11:54.519 --> 00:11:57.240 numbered tiers, objects too precious or yet to be cataloged, 241 00:11:57.279 --> 00:12:00.159 set behind a coded lock. The coin isn't listed the 242 00:12:00.159 --> 00:12:02.600 main register, not until the last page, where a fresh 243 00:12:02.679 --> 00:12:05.960 irritation proclaims it on active low. I checked my own old 244 00:12:05.960 --> 00:12:08.159 digital scans at the Heroes of Public Service case from 245 00:12:08.240 --> 00:12:11.279 last month, stills up to my personal desktop folder. The 246 00:12:11.320 --> 00:12:13.679 photo shows the surreal look typewriter, but it's flanked by 247 00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:16.759 a pair of draft ledgers, not badges. I double checked 248 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:20.639 the digital date stamp correct. I pull out newsletters, pamphlets, 249 00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:22.639 anything I might have handled. Half of it no longer 250 00:12:22.679 --> 00:12:25.519 matches what sits in the museum. Now, not knowing where 251 00:12:25.519 --> 00:12:27.720 else to look, I take the new Victory Coyn inventory 252 00:12:27.759 --> 00:12:30.159 slip to Missess Holland, who was enjoying her daily cup 253 00:12:30.159 --> 00:12:32.120 of black tea in the office break room, surrounded by 254 00:12:32.120 --> 00:12:34.159 the scent of lemon and crisp biscuit wrappers. How many 255 00:12:34.200 --> 00:12:36.039 a tune that might be from an old city pageant 256 00:12:36.559 --> 00:12:38.440 do you recall adding a coin to the main gallery, 257 00:12:38.960 --> 00:12:43.360 I ask, projecting friendly openness. She grins, not at all defensive. 258 00:12:43.960 --> 00:12:45.960 You must. We did that tour for the primary school 259 00:12:45.960 --> 00:12:48.440 back in October, and the little red haired girl asked 260 00:12:48.440 --> 00:12:50.600 where Hellville was. I said it wasn't there any more, 261 00:12:50.679 --> 00:12:54.720 just memory. She pauses. Franz, then shrugs, as if gently 262 00:12:54.759 --> 00:12:57.840 excusing a lapse in her own files. I've been mentioning 263 00:12:57.840 --> 00:13:00.639 it on tours for months. Sentry's all of this is 264 00:13:00.720 --> 00:13:04.000 routine for him. The museum'svolving flavors only proof it's alive 265 00:13:04.039 --> 00:13:07.000 and kicking. On his first day, he'd nearly propose sending 266 00:13:07.039 --> 00:13:09.480 the old bicycle on a tour of city parks. Convinced 267 00:13:09.480 --> 00:13:12.879 the exhibits never stands still anyway, he confesses to sometimes 268 00:13:12.919 --> 00:13:15.320 seeing objects he'd never notice, then acting as if they 269 00:13:15.320 --> 00:13:18.080 were always there. How else do you keep it interesting? 270 00:13:18.159 --> 00:13:21.720 He'd ask lightly, before ducking back into the tool room. Lewis, 271 00:13:21.840 --> 00:13:24.639 ever poetic, is finishing as waxing rounds near the cut rack. 272 00:13:25.360 --> 00:13:28.360 He regards me carefully, his gaze soft and emboded. If 273 00:13:28.360 --> 00:13:30.679 a river twists, he begins, can you say where it 274 00:13:30.720 --> 00:13:33.000 was last night? Maybe the museum likes to wander a bit. 275 00:13:33.159 --> 00:13:35.799 Some places aren't stuck like we think they are. Miss 276 00:13:35.919 --> 00:13:38.759 s Holland, when pressed, simply asks, did you see the 277 00:13:38.799 --> 00:13:41.960 parade photo in the children's case It moves to sometimes. 278 00:13:42.039 --> 00:13:44.679 I like the second from the left. Fellow always look surprised. 279 00:13:44.720 --> 00:13:47.600 Maybe the exhibits are more surprising than we remember. I 280 00:13:47.639 --> 00:13:51.360 shape my head, smiling, half exasperated, half amused. These are 281 00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:53.720 the answers of people who have made a piece with flux. 282 00:13:54.399 --> 00:13:57.039 A call of form a library colleague Rufe Miller, who'd 283 00:13:57.039 --> 00:13:59.720 once harbored designs of writing a monograph on our unification 284 00:13:59.759 --> 00:14:03.919 fire on the phone. I ask, after the limb though, yes, 285 00:14:04.039 --> 00:14:08.559 the city Unification Festival centerpiece, Ruth says immediately. That's always 286 00:14:08.559 --> 00:14:11.320 been there, hasn it? Then? Funny, though I could have 287 00:14:11.360 --> 00:14:13.120 sworn when I was a child, my grandmother said it 288 00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:15.080 belonged to our family. But that can't be right. I'm 289 00:14:15.120 --> 00:14:17.919 sure your records are better than my memories. I laugh, 290 00:14:18.039 --> 00:14:21.200 and the line fauses into silence. And now the contradiction 291 00:14:21.320 --> 00:14:24.360 is too layered to ignore. The City's stories are shifting, 292 00:14:24.559 --> 00:14:27.200 not merely faded by time, but in motion, deliberate as 293 00:14:27.200 --> 00:14:29.440 whether enigmatic is the soft light that floods the whole 294 00:14:29.519 --> 00:14:32.360 before dusk. The question trips in front of me wherever 295 00:14:32.440 --> 00:14:35.200 I walk and my witnessing simple error, slipping memory a 296 00:14:35.240 --> 00:14:38.240 trick of collective recall, or is the museum's quite power 297 00:14:38.240 --> 00:14:41.559 more peculiar, less easily explained. A new day brings the 298 00:14:41.639 --> 00:14:44.480 quarterly Planning Meeting, our only regular gathering outside of the 299 00:14:44.480 --> 00:14:47.440 annual from Dresing Gala. We crowd into the second floor 300 00:14:47.519 --> 00:14:51.639 resource room, myself, Sam, Missess Holland Lewis leaning, not sitting, 301 00:14:51.679 --> 00:14:54.320 and a pair of board members. A topic appears on 302 00:14:54.360 --> 00:14:57.279 the agenda, should we expend their war memoril exhibit? There 303 00:14:57.279 --> 00:15:00.480 are murmurs of agreement. Board member Warren, who his family 304 00:15:00.480 --> 00:15:03.639 once ran a corner Estonia twelfth Street, gestures eloquently. The 305 00:15:03.639 --> 00:15:05.480 diorama of the Battle of the north Bridge draws a 306 00:15:05.480 --> 00:15:07.320 lot of attention. I think it could serve as the 307 00:15:07.360 --> 00:15:11.200 new centerpiece Battle of the North Bridge. The phrase sends 308 00:15:11.200 --> 00:15:13.240 a shiver up a soft ti shinyam my shoulder blades. 309 00:15:13.919 --> 00:15:16.440 That dirama last week was a tidy tableau of the 310 00:15:16.480 --> 00:15:19.360 forgotten Mayer's office from the nineteen twelve reform campaign. Miniature 311 00:15:19.360 --> 00:15:22.039 desks a near perfect model of the rotary fawn, tiny 312 00:15:22.039 --> 00:15:25.440 paper of voting slips. Now the same display tables draped 313 00:15:25.440 --> 00:15:27.919 in green felt, scattered with model soldiers in blue and 314 00:15:27.960 --> 00:15:31.200 tan as swing bridge outches above a painted river, red 315 00:15:31.200 --> 00:15:35.279 flags marking corners of enemy territory. Under glass red let 316 00:15:35.320 --> 00:15:38.000 of cards described the battle that changed the city. I 317 00:15:38.039 --> 00:15:41.600 glance at Sam. He's absorbed in the shifting mechanism, watching 318 00:15:41.600 --> 00:15:45.639 the tiny figures with childlike interest. Lewis for once, looks 319 00:15:45.679 --> 00:15:48.399 mildly grave, his eyes narrowed in the direction of the flags. 320 00:15:49.080 --> 00:15:51.960 Missess Howland comments, it's a lovely piece. Reminds me of 321 00:15:51.960 --> 00:15:54.080 my uncle's stories. He used to say there were six 322 00:15:54.120 --> 00:15:57.320 bridges for each river crossing, and sometimes the city moved underfoot. 323 00:15:57.759 --> 00:16:00.679 The group discussion veers into debates about memorial signage, but 324 00:16:00.759 --> 00:16:03.799 the foundation of my confusion lodges there was there ever 325 00:16:03.799 --> 00:16:07.279 a North Bridge battle. City records, dozens of annuals, the 326 00:16:07.279 --> 00:16:10.559 bound volume in my own living room suggest otherwise. After 327 00:16:10.639 --> 00:16:13.440 the meeting, I find myself leaping through the museum's guest books, 328 00:16:13.519 --> 00:16:16.440 kept scrupulously for four decades of filing. Cabinet rescued from 329 00:16:16.440 --> 00:16:19.720 a theater demolition. The earliest entries, giggle was scoot. Children's 330 00:16:19.720 --> 00:16:22.919 signatures the occasional please had explanations for children scribbled in 331 00:16:22.960 --> 00:16:25.879 a teacher's hand. But here and there, in margins and 332 00:16:25.919 --> 00:16:29.559 beneath me printed lions are visitor notes. Love seeing the 333 00:16:29.600 --> 00:16:33.000 North Bridge. My grandfather fought there. I think Victory corn 334 00:16:33.080 --> 00:16:35.960 moved to see again. Wish my father were here? Why 335 00:16:36.039 --> 00:16:38.360 is the Mayor's office hidden behind cases? To day? Last 336 00:16:38.360 --> 00:16:41.440 month he showed us to bridge model. I follow the threat, 337 00:16:41.480 --> 00:16:44.480 flipping further. The notes stretched back to before my tenure. 338 00:16:44.559 --> 00:16:47.519 Stories about exhibits I have no record of, sometimes changing 339 00:16:47.519 --> 00:16:50.600 from one year to the next. The city parade photograph 340 00:16:50.600 --> 00:16:52.960 in the children's room once just a municipal of entiquis, 341 00:16:53.000 --> 00:16:56.639 different names, additional participants, and mister Timmons from Third Street 342 00:16:56.679 --> 00:16:59.759 rights amend minus one thousand, nine hundred ninety scroll. The 343 00:16:59.799 --> 00:17:03.120 li seems closer to the light these days. Always feels different, somehow, 344 00:17:03.639 --> 00:17:06.559 A catch is me. Mister Timmins is a familiar face, 345 00:17:06.599 --> 00:17:09.160 white haired, with a habit of narrating football scores to himself. 346 00:17:09.160 --> 00:17:12.000 In quiet corners. I find him resting on a slat 347 00:17:12.039 --> 00:17:16.279 bat bench watching Saturday's visitors with gentle patients I take 348 00:17:16.319 --> 00:17:19.119 a seat beside him. Nope, copenp idle and offer him 349 00:17:19.119 --> 00:17:22.240 a rat lemon drop by way of prudence, Mister Timmins, 350 00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:24.880 do you recall the cockbig brass penduln case, the one 351 00:17:24.920 --> 00:17:29.039 near the entrance? He smiles, Corus, I remember it differently 352 00:17:29.079 --> 00:17:31.920 every year. Sometimes the face is clean, sometimes it's rusty. 353 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:34.319 Once I swear it struck thirteen at nine. But I 354 00:17:34.319 --> 00:17:37.039 suppose I must be confusing museums, or maybe just having 355 00:17:37.039 --> 00:17:39.559 a bit of fun with myself. He waves off. The 356 00:17:39.559 --> 00:17:43.319 implication continues, Not frightening, Really feels right to have a 357 00:17:43.359 --> 00:17:44.960 place where things are as varied as the people that 358 00:17:45.039 --> 00:17:50.079 love them. Not frightening, not unseaddling, comforting. Even that evening, 359 00:17:50.119 --> 00:17:52.880 I sit in the tiny office with my notes, something 360 00:17:52.920 --> 00:17:55.079 new swirling to the surface. Not just error at not 361 00:17:55.200 --> 00:17:58.000 just aging civic memory, but a collective movement, a gentle 362 00:17:58.039 --> 00:18:00.880 tilt in the current. Not one fixed history, but a 363 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:04.759 palum's delayed stories, recollections, blending fact and invention, edited and 364 00:18:04.799 --> 00:18:08.119 re edited every time you look back. Instead of seeking blame, 365 00:18:08.200 --> 00:18:10.799 I find myself wondering if the museum itself is designed 366 00:18:10.799 --> 00:18:13.319 for this, if everything about its architecture and traditions, is 367 00:18:13.359 --> 00:18:16.119 less abid for accuracy and more slow dance of possibilities. 368 00:18:16.720 --> 00:18:19.200 Perhaps the records are meant to linger in perfectly preservation, 369 00:18:19.319 --> 00:18:22.519 not as fixedy, but as living amendment. The museum, I 370 00:18:22.559 --> 00:18:24.599 begin to suspect, is not a static bank, but some 371 00:18:24.680 --> 00:18:26.640 kind of courser as a site where what was, what 372 00:18:26.720 --> 00:18:29.240 might have been, and what was once dreamed all quietly glide. 373 00:18:29.680 --> 00:18:32.680 This idea is not terrifying. If anything, it draws me forward. 374 00:18:33.400 --> 00:18:35.920 A new question forms. If the museum does this, suckles 375 00:18:35.960 --> 00:18:38.440 the city's potential histories, how deep does the pattern run? 376 00:18:38.960 --> 00:18:41.680 It is? There are logic to the changes, an artery 377 00:18:41.720 --> 00:18:44.880 of intention, a system, a rule? Where are we simply 378 00:18:44.920 --> 00:18:48.119 living alongside a story that prefers not to settle? I 379 00:18:48.160 --> 00:18:50.279 can help but take the thought home with me, turning 380 00:18:50.319 --> 00:18:53.000 it over like a fading coin. Two days later, I 381 00:18:53.079 --> 00:18:55.640 return on a morning mark by rents, losing down high windows, 382 00:18:55.720 --> 00:18:58.759 making the main whose malvividly aviron and all dust. I 383 00:18:58.839 --> 00:19:01.480 set out to organize last one succession paperwork. Tucked in 384 00:19:01.519 --> 00:19:03.599 the old supply closet adjacent to the mezzanines. There is 385 00:19:03.640 --> 00:19:05.480 a job. I defer it if I'm honest, out of 386 00:19:05.519 --> 00:19:07.799 mild dread for the dust bunnis and off kild the shelves. 387 00:19:08.440 --> 00:19:11.079 I shuffle boxes aside until my foot strikes something loose 388 00:19:11.079 --> 00:19:14.200 beneath the rubber mats. The floorboard chifts with a click, 389 00:19:14.880 --> 00:19:17.519 bending down. I shift the mat, bracing out a muffle curs, 390 00:19:17.559 --> 00:19:19.359 and make quick work of prying the ancient plank cup 391 00:19:19.359 --> 00:19:23.039 from its recess. Below there is a box nothing on 392 00:19:23.160 --> 00:19:24.960 eight a battered the skull of card and the sort 393 00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:27.880 once used for bank statements and abandoned check books. I 394 00:19:27.960 --> 00:19:31.279 lift it carefully. The lid is loose, banded within marks 395 00:19:31.279 --> 00:19:34.480 and splade circles. Inside is a ledger dog eared, its 396 00:19:34.480 --> 00:19:38.200 spines splintered but thick from additions over decades. The cover 397 00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:40.680 bears no title, just a penciled number and a faded 398 00:19:40.720 --> 00:19:43.319 sticker from the old station as a main My glass 399 00:19:43.359 --> 00:19:45.640 catch on sticky tape residue as I open the first 400 00:19:45.640 --> 00:19:49.359 page Exhibit Record in nineteen twenty six. See also Auxiliary 401 00:19:49.359 --> 00:19:52.920