Today was a glorious day, at least by the standards of the weather we've been having around here lately. Mid-40s and sunny, warm enough to wander about town wearing a long-sleeved shirt and vest. Which is exactly what I decided to do after noon after decided that the weather was to nice to stay inside and clean.
I started with my favorite fair-weather activity, wandering around Riverside Park and taking pictures. After an hour or so of doing that, I meandered over to Depot Town, and happened to take a fortuitus duck into one of the antique stores there because I saw some books. After wandering about a bit, I picked up a couple of books about Ypsilanti (the first volume of the book published by the Depot Town Association back in 1999, and a copy of the 1973 Ypsilanti city charter). The lady who ran the store was chatting with a friend of hers, and was joined buy the guy who runs the store next door. When she saw my books, she pointed me at two other books in a part of the store I had only glanced at, which had a 1920's history of Ypsilanti and some early photographs of town. This lead to a fifteen minute chat with the three of them, in which I picked up little historical tidbits and had the Ypsilanti Historical Society recommended to me.
Being a nice day outside still, and the Ypsilanti Historical Society being just around the corner up on South Huron, I wandered on up. I had always wanted to stop in but never did, and today was as good of day as any. Two nice ladies showed me, and a couple with a young child from Novi that showed up a few minutes after me, the lovely Dow House that the YHS is housed in. It's really a treasure trove, and I will certainly be back there. The highlight was the beautiful Tiffany stained glass window that was originally in the Starkweather Library just down the street. There's also down in the basement a wonderful archive which anyone can come down and ask for help in finding materials, which I certainly will be using in the future. Perhaps I can finally find out what is up with the apparent editing of the statue of Demtrius Ypsilanti that I talked about in issue 0 of Late Night Thinking.
After I wandered through I talked briefly to one of the ladies who was there, who suggested that I show up sometime to do docent training and volunteer as a docent. I think I'll take that up sometime, as it sounds like something fascinating.
Finally I made it to my traditional ending point, the Ugly Mug, for some coffee and wireless. Photos I took today will appear here as soon as they filter up through the toobes.