Good morning John, it's Friday. I'm going to be talking about sidewalks for this entire video, but if you bear with me
I know that it doesn't seem like it, but it will be worth it. Four years ago
I didn't have an idea for the video that I wanted to make so I asked Twitter to send me ideas, one of the things
that was until I was told to do by Shaina Joseph was to interview the sidewalk so I did that I'm here today with a
Sidewalk to talk about what it's like to be a sidewalk so sidewalk. What do you think well?
I got no complaints except tree roots. Don't get me started on tree roots. Fascinating
I also did this dance, which that's good. There's a link if you want to watch that
2013 vlogbrothers video. Ever since I made that video I have spent
Surprising amount of time thinking about interviewing sidewalks. Where we grew up in, Florida
Sidewalks were boring and consistent than they were all they done at the same time here in Missoula
Sidewalks were laid down a hundred years ago
They were laid down last Tuesday
So it's like a weird patchwork and a lot of them are falling apart and also they have
Occasionally you'll see makers marks that will tell you who laid the sidewalk and what year it was laid down maker's marks are part
Advertisement part like record-keeping so the city knows who did what and part warranty, so I like if it breaks
You know who did it after the 50s these kind of go away
And so you are more reliant on people actually carving like just illicitly carving the year into this sidewalk
Which I actually appreciate, though
Not legal technically if you look hard enough
You could see that sidewalks look different from different eras
both because of how they've weathered and also the materials that were used in them
Look, it's a thing that I think about which is why...
Recently I was outside of a friend of Mines house, and I had a moment
It was like a rather intense
sidewalk related moment sometimes in sidewalks
You will see footprints like people footprints or dog footprints
So I was seeing that there were these little people footprints
They looked like they were probably from a kid like two or three years old
just like a kid wandered onto the wet cement
Just walked down sidewalk for a little while.
And I was following those footsteps
And I got to a makers mark where it said:
"miracle and trip of the maker 1909"
and as a person who thinks a lot about sidewalks... my,
I did the the math, I actually did some research on this
it was Frank miracle and Henry Trip where the the guys who laid that Sidewalk in 1909.
And actually had a guarantee for five years after they were the sidewalk if anything went wrong
They would replace it and here it is
It's a hundred then nine years later and Frank Miracle isn't around anymore
Henry Trip isn't it around anymore
and that little kid who made those little footsteps
presumably grew up lived a life and is also gone. You might be thinking
Oh Hank is sad because he has a baby and baby grew up and lived and but it's actually kind of a
Thing that I like, um
I-I like I don't have context to that person's life
But what I do have is knowledge that they were there, like that moment when the sidewalk was laid down
This this thing happened this tiny insignificant
Little human thing. I like when people
Create things with the the knowledge and the intent that they're gonna be around serving a purpose after those people are gone
But here's the real thing. I like that this
inanimate chunk of concrete
Connects people who don't know that they're connected, and I don't think that we're ever very good at understanding
How connected we are to each other,
to the whole sort of system of the Earth.
Like people take drugs to feel that feeling, and I got it from a sidewalk.
That feeling of being part of something that existed long before us
stretches out way beyond us
Is very neat, it's very good. It's very real. It's very big and I like it
and
That's my sidewalk story John. I'll see you on Tuesday
Oh hey kitty, hi you you surprised me