Bachmann's Mysteries, Part One

It's amazing how you can look at something a thousand times without noticing the details. All it takes is someone to point it out, and everything changes.

Recently, my EMU professor, Dr. Ligibel, was checking out the exterior bricks of the old Bachmann's building. "Who's Floyd Ames?" he asked, pointing to a brick above his head. I looked more closely and saw a signature and date. Floyd Ames. April 16, 1909. Cursive writing, so you KNOW it's old;-) How could I have never seen this before?

Then we noticed something even more glorious--the bricks are full of signatures. It looks like people signed them when there was a covered staircase leading to the upper apartment. Most are above "head level." and seem to follow the angle of the old roof line.

The bottom picture shows the "big picture," so to speak. The top picture shows the "writing on the wall."

Since I love local history, I researched Floyd Ames. The first place I found him is in the 1910 Census.

If you can zoom in, you'll see that in 1910, Floyd Ames was eighteen and lived in Central Lake with his mother. He listed his occupation as "produce buyer." Think about Central Lake in 1910. Think about all the events in Floyd's future. In my next blog you'll find out more about this young man who signed a brick in 1909.