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Location: Longview, Washington, United States

I live in a small town in Washington State, USA, with my wife, two sons, two dogs, a cat, and family nearby. I work at the local community college as an I.T. Specialist. In March of '02, we bought a 70-some year old house that needed a lot of work. When I'm not working on the house, I like to throw pots, be outside, and read a lot.

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Monday, November 22, 2004

Mystery Symbols, Part II


Back tho the drawing board. Today on lunch, we went home, and I took the opportunity to climb up the basement fieldstone wall and do a little forensic sluething. I chipped away the paint with a razor and found them to be made of some sort of particle board. It looks like they were originally painted white although there were some tantalizing silver flecks like there might have originally been a thin layer of aluminum foil on the stars. Neither white nor silver lends itself to the theory that these were fighting Murphy stars, put up to commemorate family members gone off to war. In a way, I was relieved not to find blue or gold paint, but now I'm also back to square one. Were they originally just decoration? Why two stars on one side of the house but none on the other? Why put one star up, in proper vertical orientation, and have the top one be all akilter? My next angle of attack will be to mount one of the paint flecks so that its edge in on display and then try to get access to a microscope where I can check for hidden layers of paint.

posted by Scott in Washington at 1:25 PM |

4 comment(s):

  • OK, I am sucked into this now! CSI here I come!!

    Come in to the clinic sometime with Brit and you can use our microscope....I haven't done this sort of thing before, mostly look for microscopic critters, but might be easy??? Colors don't always look the same under the microscope, but maybe on low power?

    Vicky

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11/22/2004 08:09:00 PM  

  • In the picture, you can sort see on the upper edge of the left arm of the bottom star (thats a mouthful), that many layers of paint were chipped off this stars at some point. We're talking about at least a quarter inch of layered paint. Why have they been there that long? If only they could lift their pointed little heads up off the wall and tell their story.

    Thank you for the offer of your equipment. You may well find your self soon to be a material witness, or witness to some material, or I'm not sure, but I'm looking forward to doing more investigation.

    By Blogger Scott in Washington, at 11/23/2004 09:08:00 AM  

  • This may sound really strange...but...perhaps...the Bi-Centennial Celebration? Folks were painting and decorating and putting stars on the STRANGEST things back then. All of the fire hydrants in town were painted as little Minute Men. People painted Betsy Ross flags and all sorts of things on parts of their houses and outbuildings. It was Patriotic Fever meets Martha Stewart meets the 70's desire to paint murals.

    http://www.firehydrant.org/pictures/bicentennial.html

    The symbol for 1976 was this star:

    http://www.dimensional.com/~jbettin/r78/76bicentlogo.jpg

    http://www.columbia.edu/itc/history/brinkley/3651/photos/seventies/Bicentennial.jpg

    Could be part of that celebration maybe? Someone used the stars in a mural? Maybe your little box there was a chubby little Thomas Jefferson :)

    jm @ houseinprogress

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11/26/2004 10:13:00 PM  

  • Jeannie,

    Now theres a thought. I know they were painted white by 78. I haven't investigated the surface they are affixed to. Its possible they were originally one color and the surface of the wall was another. More sluething to come... Just as soon as its not dark when I leave for work and dark when I get home at night.

    I remember those little minute men painted hydrants. When I was a kid in the 80s, there were still a few left in choice neighborhoods of our town. I remember begging my mom to drive by them on outings as a special treat.

    SD

    PS; I think those firefighters got way too carried away by the '76 spirit!

    By Blogger Scott in Washington, at 11/30/2004 08:19:00 AM  

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