Have you ever found yourself drawn to an antiques shop? What is it about the leftover artifacts of someone's life from fifty or a hundred years ago? In a small town in middle America, the shops often contain pieces of personal history that I find fascinating to explore and wonder about. One time, a few years ago, while in an antique store in such a small town, I came across an olive-drab painted wooden case stenciled "U.S. Army" on the cover. Upon opening the case I found a wonderful old surveyor's level with a telescope that must have been 24 inches long. Next to the case was a wooden tripod with brass fittings that had turned green over time. Having some experience with old surveying tools, I thought if only this instrument could talk, what stories it could tell us! Later, outside at an old railroad station, lay pieces of history likely in use when President Grover Cleveland's re-election train came through. Now, I'm not one to spend too much time browsing through antique shops, but from time to time, as I find myself doing so, my imagination runs wild with the stories that each piece might share.
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