match game

funny thing happened on the way back from my last trip to my father in law's house. after dropping off his old washer/dryer dad sent me home with his parent's fantastic matchbook collection. he snuck me out before grandpa was the wiser. i brought them home in the ash can they had been stored in and then poured them out on the living room floor.
as i began to sift through the enormous pile i was struck by 2 things. first, the commitment. i don't know when the folks started this collection, but i'm guessing it goes pretty far back. a lot of the covers still list the old two letter prefix at the beginning of a phone number - like EL7-1137. and they range from that point on into at least the 1980's. that's a long stretch. second, they are from all over the world! i knew my wife's grandparents were travelers but sheesh, i had no idea. from the local pancake and burger place around the corner from where we now live, to a yurt in ecuador or a far east inn.
each of these tells a story that the storytellers can no longer relate. and yet as i am now in possession of them, i shall do my best to act as a kind of post-modern archaeologist and dig deeper into the best of these finds. perhaps they can still tell us something.