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Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Found: Front Door Key - 1850

I'm fortunate to live in an area that is rich in the artifacts of the past 2 or 3 centuries. Don't get me wrong, I don't trip over things as I walk down the street. Here in Connecticut one can find all sorts of things that could have been tossed long ago, but for what ever reason, never were. It's possible that living in CT made me an Urban Archeologist. Taking a few hours every Saturday to look for these artifacts is fun and rewarding because I can choose to explore and eventually "trip" over things like this.
At a Bridgewater, CT sale, sitting on a workbench, minding its own business, was this salient item. It's just a worn piece of wood. right? No. To me, it has a story to tell. It's asking questions: What am I? What was I used for? Why am I here? Why do I have green and white flecks of paint?  Don't worry, I wasn't hearing voices - though maybe my own saying: Old! Cool! My only hope is that the seller knows the answers. As luck would have it, sometimes these things have the answers written on the back:
Click for a larger image
Or did this acidified, gummed label just start spewing a whole new page of questions? If you can't make out the label, here is the text: 

"Redding Conn   Used (to) fasten front door, just over the latch 1850-"

Used by whom!? to do what? Where?  This is going to take some further research, but for an urban archeologist like me? This is as good as gold.  Price: $1.

To be continued...

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