Today my exposure to news, while not sought out, was that the Seahawks were badly beaten by Chicago and are out of the playoffs. I don't follow football, and never have, so missing out on this was not anything earth-shattering. Sorry to any 12th Man or Woman fans that this might offend.
My lovely Sunday started out with a personal e-mail from someone concerning a research site that I had requested information from. The e-mail was along the lines of "Yes, I knew him in college, he lives in Hootville and I just saw him a few years ago. What is your interest in Jimmy John?"
In my research to date, I deal with dead people. Sometimes I deal with the memories of live people about dead people but that is very unusual. To have a living person contact me to answer a question about another living person is a new experience. I was very grateful, which I expressed, and somewhat stunned. I have been filling in the gaps of this man's life, his parents, his birth, school years, marriage and in so doing he has become another of the people in my collection of data. But in this case, he is more than that. He is a living person and I have to remember that.
After a career in finance, the subject of this particular inquiry listed his occupation as "professional actor". This would have been at the age of 67 or so. I just loved that piece of data. On a whim, I went to one of my favorite sites, Internet Movie Data Base (these folks seriously rock if you are into film) and looked up my subject. Sure enough, he is listed as acting in two films, a comedy and a romantic short. Better yet, there is a picture of him and his wife from one of the movies and both of their names match my data which is a lock on the identity match. In the picture he looks like a man with a great sense of humour.
With this newest information, this gentleman is no longer a series of documents and verifiable events. He is a person with a real life and enough of a sense of fun and creativity to become an actor in his 60's. I have so much more connection with, and respect for, this man whom I have not even spoken to much less met. If I get the opportunity to do either, I will be on my best behavior to try and explain why I am researching his family and to respect his privacy should he not wish to answer any questions about the past.
In the meantime the story I am researching just gets richer and more interesting, drawing me further and further into its thrall. There are so many things to know more about. I have to research the European trading community in Shanghai from the late 1800's to the take-over by the Japanese in the 1930's. I will need to have a practical understanding of the methods of overseas trading that United States companies engaged in. The story requires a detailed grasp of steamship travel from the late 1800's through the 1950's and also what travelers experienced on the early Trans-Atlantic commercial airliner flights.
I need to know Manhattan from 1900 to 1965, the Berkshires and what summer places were like for the wealthy and how people were either included or excluded from the New York Social Register. It is bloody endless and interesting.
There may even be the chance to talk to the occasional living person or two along the way.
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