The day I found a 1920s newspaper in a flue

Cleaned a chimney in an old farmhouse near Lancaster last fall, and the damper was stuck shut. Had to work it loose for about an hour, and when it finally gave way, a whole stack of old papers fell down. The top one was from October 1928, perfectly dry and readable. The homeowner and I spent twenty minutes just looking at the ads and the news. It was a quiet reminder that we're not just cleaning soot, we're touching history. Anyone else ever find something that stopped the job for a bit?

4 comments

4 Comments

amybarnes1mo ago

That five cent bread ad got me too @emerycarr. Really puts things in perspective when you're holding something that's been untouched since before the Great Depression. Makes you wonder what someone 100 years from now will find stuck in our walls.

emerycarr1mo ago

Sat there with @zara_hill46's words rattling around my head while I held that paper. The ads for 5 cent bread and a local shoe shop made me laugh. Felt like the whole century just settled into the room for a second. That's the kind of find that makes you forget you're covered in soot.

willow_garcia2mo ago

Found a sealed tin of ration coupons from 1943 behind some loose bricks in a basement wall. Just sat on the concrete floor with the homeowner, turning those little paper squares over in our hands. For a minute, the damp and the dust didn't matter at all. Those moments are the real pay for the dirty work.

zara_hill462mo ago

Ever try to explain that feeling to someone who's never held history in their hands? I just tell them it's like the past stops being a story for a minute. Makes all the grime worth it.