You Sentimental Idiot

I visited the First Saturday Antique Fair in Portsmouth over the weekend.  That place never disappoints.  It is held in a parking garage right in the center of downtown Portsmouth.  We couldn't have asked for a prettier morning to visit the fair.  The garage was packed with antique vendors all happy to be selling their wares on such a beautiful morning.  I find that the price range is reasonable and most folks are willing to bargain.  So I'm always happy to visit bright and early, coffee in hand. 
I wanted to share an interesting find.  Date nails...  I actually had no idea what they were when I spotted them.  I was attracted to the aged metal and numbers.   I was curious to find out more and learned that they were used on the railroad.  The nails were driven into railroad ties for record keeping purposes.  They would tell things like the type of wood used for the tie and the chemical treatment used to make it last.  Basically, they kept track of the lives of the ties.  Read more about the history of date nails here.