IF You TooK
MY DETERGENT
Im SURE It WAS
A MISTAKE So
Im NOT MAID
YET BUT YOUR
Push Me And I
Push Back so It
BETTER BE BACK
lawrence resident Eric Davis tells me about the day he and his friends awoke before the sun had risen to search the city for hidden treasures. He
says these treasures can be anywhere. Behind the aging telephone pole that's constantly covered with fliers across the street from The Hawk, 1340 Ohio St. Hidden under the rocks in Burcham Park, washed up after an ugly day of polluting the Kansas River. Even at the very bottom of the dumpster in the alley behind the Java Break, 17 East 7th.
Lost and Found
Java Break, 17 East 7th. It's the alleys where they prefer to look for their "treasure." After spending an entire morning dumpster diving, their finds will fill three duffle bags. To their knowledge, their treasure has no monetary value, but the fulfillment of finding it really is priceless.
really is priceless.
Davis and his friends seek any thrown away item that gives a glimpse into someone else's life; specifically, they look for notes and love letters, old photos, drawings, poems, birthday cards, and even to-do lists. "Most of it's just kind of odd," Davis says.
Davis first became interested in finding things when he heard about Found, a magazine that publishes unique, hilarious and heartbreak finds from people around the country. Its Web site, foundmagazine.com, is a forum where people across the country can share their findings and discuss them. After humble beginnings in independent bookstores, Found books, which feature the best finds from the magazines, are available at bookstores
nationwide
nationwide Davy Rothbart, founder of Found, has always enjoyed discovering things. One of his earliest memories is finding notes in a field where he waited for the school bus. One note in particular that Rothbart found inspired him to compile all of his findings into a magazine. It was a cold night in Chicago three years ago when he walked out to his car to find a note on his windshield that read:
That note, along with several other notes, pictures and drawings would be a part of the first Found zinc. Rothbart, who worked at Kinko's at the time, made 50 copies of the zine one night at night. A coworker absolutely loved it and suggested Rothbart make 800 copies.
Rothbart make 800 copies. But 800 copies weren't enough. After he handed out several at a party, more and more people became interested in the zine. "It came to the point where groups of people were knocking on my door wanting it," Rothbart says. "They were addictive. I think my neighbors probably thought I was dealing drugs out of my house."
The more people who became interested, the more Rothbart and his friend Jason Bitner, also a Chicago native and avid collector of found items, were inspired to produce the zines. With Found, which soon became a magazine sold at bookstores in Chicago, Rothbart and Bitner brought together a new community. "I've met so many people who have been doing this on their own for a long time," Rothbart says. "I never realized that so many people shared my fascination."
many people shared my interest Now, three years later, Found magazine's popularity continues to grow. publishing discovered items from around the world. Bothbart gets up to 10
world. Rothbart gets up to things a day in the mail. The magazine is a collaborative effort with a team of "all-star finders," those who Rothbart says have contributed the most and best from around the country.
One of those finders is Michael Powell, a graduate student at Rice University in Brooklyn, New York. He heard about Found through his girlfriend, who met Rothbart while attending the University of Michigan. Powell has always enjoyed finding things, but he never thought about keeping them in an organized collection until Rothbart started Found. "Most people just don't pay attention to things like I do," Powell says. If he sees something, and he sees a lot in his Brooklyn neighborhood, he'll pick it up. Powell says magazines
pick it up. Powell says magazines such as Found have made people view their own neighborhoods differently. "It's like they opened their eyes to a different
At the Republican Convention in New York City Powell met David Meiklejohn, another one of Rothbart's "all-stars." Meiklejohn moved to New York and the two had heard about each other through a network of friends associated with Found. The two met up to see what they could find at the convention, but found nothing worth keeping among the tight security.
worth keeping among the older. When Meilejohn heard about Found while working at a bookstore in Portland, Maine, he was already an experienced finder. He describes Portland as a compact town with many residents
Mr. He describes Portland as a city, and with so many residents within a small area, the chances are greater of unearthing something worth keeping. One day he noticed a notebook sitting in a gutter. He picked it up and unexpectedly entered the life of a complete anger. It was
stranger. It was a journal from an aspiring restaurant owner and apparent heroin addict trying to kick the habit. Meiklejohn was so infatuated with the notebook that after finding it he could not stop looking at the
ground. "I had to force myself to look up at the scenery in the sky." Meikle-john says.
John says:
Rothbart, Powell and
Meiklejohn never leave
their homes with the intent
of coming across something they prefer to wait until something comes to them. They say the experience is less enjoyable when you look for something
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