By Mike Pearce    In the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries, thousands of brass bands dotted the American landscape. Those ensembles played music assembled in march size folios and band books. As those band books now find their way into auctions from attics and basements, they become attractive collectibles for a select number of band history collectors and performers. By […]

By Maureen Timm    In 1680 an Irishman named Robert Boyle discovered that if you rubbed phosphorus and sulphur together they would instantly burst into flames. He discovered the principle that was the precursor of the modern match. The next discovery was by an Englishman. In 1827 a pharmacist called John Walker produced “Sulphuretted Peroxide Strikeables,” which were a yard long […]

By Mary Helen Crain, April 1980    “Spring is the sound through an open window, of children playing, laughing, of roller skates and bikes. Spring is baby animals in the fields, mother birds building nests and a sun that grows warm. Spring is pussy willows and bumble bees, robins and daffodils. Spring is sudden rain and a fresh green haze in […]

By Carol Mobley    Have you heard of hold-to-the-light postcards and wondered just what is that? You wouldn’t be the first person to ask. A hold-to-the-light postcard is a postcard with 3 layers a front with a pattern cut out of it, a lighter color layer, and the back so when you hold it up you can see the light through […]

   April Fool’s Day started in France, where before France adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1564, New Year’s was celebrated from March 21st to April 1st. And when they changed New Year’s Day to January 1st, many French people continued to celebrate New Year’s on April 1st.    The French people who wouldn’t change became known as April fools. The idea of […]