What Baseball Artifact Brings You Back in Time in the Deepest Way?

[Metsfan0507]

To me, it's my T206 cards. When i look at them I'm not so much thinking about the players that are pictured, but I think about the previous owners of the cards.

What was their life like in 1909? Were they a little kid begging adults for cards outside the newspaper shop, or were they an adult buying the cigarettes for themselves? Did they live in a city or a more rural setting?

Had the owners ever gone to an mlb game themselves when they were collecting? did they live near a team, could they afford to go? or did they follow the sport through the newspaper and radio?

How did these little pieces of paper survive all this time- did the previous owners keep them in a shoebox? glue them into an album? display them? how did they get passed through the generations while they were basically worthless? did the middle generations appreciate them, or were they a burden inherited from grandpa?

I'll never know the answer to any of these questions, but it is fun to speculate.