J: "Say, you should read about the Buffalo Bill show."
DD: "Oh yeah, I've read something about it...Annie Oakley was with him."
J: "Yeah, but the real news was the elephant!"
DD: "I didn't know he had a--"
J: "Yeah, and it got LOOSE! Ran down Michigan Ave. and trampled two people!"
DD: "Whoa! I didn't know that!"
J: "Yup, and then it actually crashed into the Hawkins Hotel--you know where that was, right?"
DD: "200-something block on Michigan Ave." (newbie slappin' down the Archives cred, yo).
J: "Right. So it crashed right in there and got in the hotel and--it fell through the floor! It completely ruined the hotel! That was the end of the Hawkins Hotel!"
DD: "Oh my gosh, I never knew that...geez, I should research that!"
J: "Nah, don't research it--just put it up on the blog!"
(waitaminute)
J: (eyes twinkling)
DD: (advances menacingly upon J. who rolls backwards on rolly-chair, safely out of reach, laughing his head off, red-faced).
(half an hour later)
DD: "Is it OK to file these "Masons" clippings in the "Masonic Hall" file?"
J: "Yeah, it's right there. Oh, and here's a picture I wanted to show you. Look--did you know that the water tower was moved? See? It used to be right next to the Museum."
DD: "Moved?! No way, lemme see...no, that can't be right; you couldn't build a heavy water tower on a riverbank! That wouldn't...(light slowly dawns) this has got to be an April Fool's day story!"
J: "It is. (reveals date). But I almost gotcha!" (giggles maniacally, wanders off).
(45 minutes later)
DD: "Should we make a new "Auto Show" file? There isn't one here."
J: "Ask E. [Archives intern]. But let me show you this photo. Do you recognize this?"
DD: "Hey, yeah, that's Laundry Land on Michigan Avenue. I used to go there all the time!" (brief internal glow of mildly happy memories from Laundry Land).J: "Well! See this thing here? (shows a grainy sign-like object in photo). "Did you know that's a historical plaque? Yep. That original spot, RIGHT THERE, was where these two Civil War generals---"
DD: (I catch on eventually) (SQUINTS SUSPICIOUSLY AT J.) "A historical plaque. In...Laundry Land."
E.: (laughs)
DD: "Right. OK, I'm not falling for that one."
J: (smugly) "You believed the elephant, though."
(well, yes, I did, I grudgingly admit it. Dang it!)
Dusty D has been involved over the years with 3 local historical societies and I have to say that in my experience there is a greater concentration of senses of humor among historians than among members of any other group I've ever been a part of.
ReplyDeleteThis sense of humor is often mordant, wicked, and sly, from what I've seen thus far.
And I'm talking about the dreamy-scholar end, and NOT the teacup-polisher end, of the historian spectrum.
Wonder why that is.