While chatting with my 78-year-old neighbor in his father's woodshop, I noticed a strip of old newspaper on a shelf with other scraps of wood. My neighbor, a retired veterinarian, said his father, who died last year at the age of 97, found the newspaper while refinishing an old piece of furniture. The strip had sat on the worn, old shelf for decades, untouched, until I pulled it down.
A close read of the scrap made it clear this was printed during the Great War--with a present-tense reference to President Wilson, among other clues.
Here's a taste of some of the copy:
"Four German officers are known to be with Francisco Villa at the present time, according to confidential information received here. The whereabouts of Villa himself remain a mystery, although the main body of his troops was reported to have been in the vicinity of Rosario, Durango, Monday."
It makes me wonder what other brilliant ephemera lurks in the antique drawers and on the dusty shelves in that wonderfully, ancient woodshop.
