I like to visualize and image events before they happen. It helps me to prepare and is part of how I look forward to events. Most of the time the event turns out nothing like what I imagined. Usually neither better or worse than imagined, just different. Sometimes worse. But every once in a while an event is not only just the way I imagined it to be but also so much better. That is what this weekend was like. This story starts almost 100 years ago but I will try to be brief.
Hubby's great aunt, his paternal grandfather's twin sister Alma married Ben. Ben was American and Alma was Canadian. They spent their married life living in Detroit Michigan. They had no children. Ben died first when Hubby was about 5 years old. Alma died a few years later when Hubby was about 10. His father inherited Alma's household items and when her house was emptied, her goods were put into their family's basement. Soon after the basement flooded and everything was wet and ruined; fit only for the garbage. Hubby found a can floating in the basement and took it. Inside was a rolled up pad of paper. Hubby did not really know what he had but was fascinated with the idea of a book in a can. He kept it.
The canister rusted from being wet but it was the can that protected the pad inside from damage. For years the canister was stored in a box of Hubby's childhood treasures. His mother moved it from house to house each time his parents moved. Hubby found the box when his mother passed away and rediscovered the canister. Now as an adult he recognized what he had.
His great uncle Ben had been a member of a special unit during the First World War. He was living in the US and became a part of the Polar Bears. This unit consisted of 5,000 Americans and another 5,000 international allied troops including British, Canadians and Scots. They were sent to Russia to support the Imperialist troops. What Hubby had was Corporal Ben's diary from his army service.
For years, Hubby debated what he wanted to do with the diary. We have no children to pass it down to. Hubby's brothers would not care about the diary. It was a dilemma. He considered donating it to a Canadian museum but would a Canadian museum care about an American soldier serving with an American contingent. Over a year ago he contacted a university in Michigan that maintained some material on this unit in their archives. However the response he received was far less than enthusiastic.
This year, he contacted the president of the historical association for this unit in Michigan. It started a dialogue. Hubby learned that while Ben may have lived in Detroit, he was born in Toronto Ontario. He learned other things he did not know. This dialogue led to Hubby learning about the Michigan's Military and Space Heroes Museum. They maintain an exhibit for the Polar Bears, an archive and are involved in education with respect to this unit. They were excited about the diary. Ben was part of Company D and they had very few artifacts from that company.
On Friday, Canada Day, Hubby and I went to Frankenmuth Michigan to donate the diary to this Michigan museum. I imagined that we would be welcomed, thanked and offered a tour of the museum. All that happened but it was so much more than just that. Hubby and I had assumed that the can and pad were standard army issue. The two fit together so perfectly they had to have been a set. We figured that that since each soldier received one, the museum would have lots of them. We were wrong.
The canister and pad were not army issue. The museum staff thinks the can was probably a bread can. The pad looks army. It was Dominion Paper and had Expeditionary Force printed on it. Not American. It could be British or Canadian. Ben probably scooped the can because it fit the pad rolled up and offered protection from the rain, cold and snow. The museum we learned had maybe a dozen diaries but none like this one. This one was unique. Ben wrote in detail what happened to him but only twice wrote anything that could be interpreted as a complaint. He rarely mentions a name, certainly not Alma's so we suspect that Alma did not enter his life until after the war. He also drew maps in the diary. You could see that our hosts were just itching to read through the diary. This was going to mean so much to the collection.
We had our picture taken with the canister and diary. We received Polar Bear pins. Before our visit, we felt that donating the diary to this museum was the right thing to do. We now feel that it was the perfect thing to do. One day we hope to be watching a documentary on this part of WWI and hear someone reading Ben's words. I know we will cry.
Some of you reading this will wonder why I am writing the above when this is a blog about knitting. Well for me everything is somehow related to knitting. When Hubby showed me a map of Frankenmuth so we could locate the museum I laughed and said I knew exactly where it was. It was next door to the Zeilinger Wool Co. Well almost next door. There is a motel between the two.
They carry fibre for spinning plus lots more. They also carry a small amount of wool yarn. A number of years ago I bought some natural skeins to dye myself. I dyed most with indigo and they were the nicest blue I ever got.
See what I picked up this time!
The cone is sock yarn. I love the marketing idea of a washed mini-skein attached to the cone so you can see how lovely the yarn is after washing. The copper yarn will be one of my next Fair projects if all goes according to plan.
When we arrived at the museum, we chatted with the lovely young lady at the front desk. We talked about going to the Mill next door. She shared her own story. The organizer of a bus trip was arranging for the bus to stop at the museum. However, she could not give a head count of how many would go into the museum and how many would head next door to the mill!
Frankenmuth has an abundance of interests for a wool aficionado. Rapunzel's downtown across from the Bavarian Inn and next to Zehnder's - famous for its chicken dinners - carries lovely things including yarn and knitting supplies. I had a stitch holder emergency - I hadn't brought any - I ended up purchasing some Clover darning needles so I could thread yarn from the next project as stitch holders. Hubby spotted a shawl pin and pointed it out. I just had to have it. Apparently a local woman makes them special for this store only. I managed to not buy yarn which for me is a major exercise of willpower.
See the pin?
I also found a bead store - Bead Haven. I have something in mind for these - the entry for beads and knitting. We will see if it works out later.
Here are a few random shots taken in Frankenmuth. The day was both cloudy and sunny and changed constantly. Sometimes in less time that it took me to set up the camera settings. I like to take photos old school.
We spent Saturday shopping at the factory outlet mall in Birch Run. It is Hubby's idea of shopping. We spend one day every 2 to 3 years hitting the stores. He gets his clothes and underwear all in one go. While there are other big malls like this now, we still like Birch Run. We know which stores we like. We know where they are. We also know that things change. We used to stay at the Super 8 motel. It is now an America's Best Value Inn. We still stay there. But this year there were too many changes for us. The restaurant we liked to eat at is now closed. We were sad. We can roll with this so we headed to our second favourite restaurant - Big Boy. Gone. It is now Leo's Coney Island Restaurant. Habits die hard - we went in anyway. On the way out, Hubby told the cashier we were disappointed when we came in that it was not the Big Boy -we were no longer disappointed.
Almost all our favourite stores are still at the mall with two exceptions. The Woolrich outlet is gone and the Bath and Body Shop. Other stores have come and gone. We could not remember what shops were in some of the empty stores. We even tried out a few new ones. They are not likely to replace our favourites.
Even though the weekend was full, there was still knitting time - sitting at the border (both ways), the car ride, the evenings and the mornings. The vest is ready for blocking before adding the front and neck bands.
This morning I started the shopping bag. I got a lot of knitting done sitting on the Ambassador Bridge coming back into Canada.
The 2016 Harrow Fair booklet is now on their site. There is one new category this year so now there are 49 categories for knitting. They have added a lapghan 36" by 48", Why oh why could it not be something small?
If you want to follow the site, there is a countdown clock for the fair. I try not to look at it. If I do it depresses me and I can't sleep.
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