Before I ever heard of the word ephemera, I found a bit of old paper tucked into an old book I bought. It was in German, and I spent hours trying to figure out what was written on this funky, orange, coarse, fragile piece of paper in that German medieval looking script. With the help of babblefish, I puzzled out that it was a flyer for Prof. Dr. Erwin Hartwig's remedy for weak, watery eyes with testamonials from people in Chicago and Milwaukee. He must have ridden up and down the train line, right along the lake with occasional clusters of buildings (and one extensive Naval training facility) breaking up the landscape of forested ravines, sandy dunes, blue lake and sky.
Maybe he lived in my town, midway between the two cities. So I had to find out what it would have been like being a traveling Professor Doctor in the late 19th Century. So, I spent hours finding out that when he lived here, the woods and ravines were barely dented by commercial knots that have now completely . The crystal clear spring waters bubbling up from the big ravine were renowned for their healing powers - and as a great supply for the local brewery.
All that from an old piece of paper.
