Cleaning out ye olde desk

It appears to be official that I am getting a new office here in the Town Office building. The roof/ceiling situation has been fixed, the hideous wallpaper removed... I have chosen a paint color- Liberty Park. That was fun.

Now on to the un-fun part. Duh, duh,duh, duh... cleaning out my office. More precisely, cleaning out my desk. (& yes, I know un-fun is not a word.)

Some random bits I discovered in the 13 drawers of my desk

Old office supplies and unused paper

I was able to consolidate the 13 drawers down the 4. I have boxed up all of the excess office supplies. But wait... I found something cool!

Books of voters in Greenwich

These "Enrolled Voters" books are very interesting. They list the name, address & political party affiliation (if any) of all registered voters in the town by district. I have books for the following years: 1935-38, 1941-45, 1947-61, 1963, 1965. Also in the drawer : Easton "Enrolled Voters" 1938, Washington County "Enrolled Voters" 1960, 1964.

Of course, I had to check. It was great seeing my grandparents & great-grandparents names in the books. No matter the party, I'm glad to see that they all were registered voters! My mother is not listed because the age limit for voting was not lowered from 21 to 18 until the states ratified the 26th Amendment & President Nixon signed it into law in July 1971.

Don't forget that my office hours are Fridays 10:00-Noon. Stop by & say "Hi."

Happy Anniversary to me!

April 24, 2012 (aside from being my 38th birthday) marked the beginning of my 9th year as Public Historian for the Town of Greenwich. My office is just as chaotic as it was in 2003. I still have three filing systems fighting for dominance. There are boxes I have not explored the contents of.

So, has anything changed? Yes, I now have a computer that is pretty current. In 2003, the computer in my office was from when I graduated from high school (Saratoga Central Catholic, Class of '92). I have a printer/scanner that is quite handy for blog posts. There have been some new editions, like those great dry glass plate negatives (see 4/7/11 & 5/18/11 blog posts). I created this blog. I started a Facebook page, even though there are only 14 "likes" so far. I need 30 to start getting stats. It's a small goal...

Below is the Town Office Building on 2 Academy Street. It used to house the Washington County Home for Aged Women. The Town Historian's office is were the two bottom corner windows to the left of the porch are.

Washington County Home for Aged Women postcard

Oh, and on May 16th I will be at the Greenwich Seniors meeting. I will bring some of the ephemera and photographs along to see if anyone can help me pinpoint some locations and put names to faces.