During recent interviews with Leslie Mann for Country Sampler
and Juday Condon, I was ask about my childhood home.
They both questioned me as to the type of house I grew up in.
Well, I spent most of my childhood living in a Salt Box style home.
Thing is it was never appreciated for it's beauty.
We had no idea the homes style even had a name, nor did we care .
It was the old house in the neighborhood.
An area that was once thrived.
Everything you needed within a block or two.
Grocery stores, dry cleaners, plant nursery, auto parts, furniture stores,
schools ,candy and ice cream manufactures, beauty salons ....
I could go on.
Homes and apartments everywhere, filled with my friends.
Yesterday, I along with my parents took a drive to the old neighborhood,
I wanted to take a picture of our old house.
Oh, so many memories
Built in 1875 this is how the home looks today.
It's one of the last homes still standing.All the businesses long gone, schools closed.
It made me so sad, to see how everything had changed.
My family lived in the house from the late 60's through the early 90's.
When we lived in the home, it sill had it's original slate roof,
and the old fashioned shake style siding.
My Dad tells me there are logs under that siding,
and I don't doubt it.
There was no attic and it had a stone foundation and the basement
floors were dirt.
You enter the basement through a trap door in the kitchen floor.
I remember as a child always trying to avoid the area for fear that
trap door might cave in.
There was no furnace, only three small free standing gas heaters.
Only about two feet of counter space, how my Mother made do
for all those years I'll never know.
One small bathroom, just big enough for the necessities.
Now that I'm aware of what a treasure the house is I wish I could rescue it...
move it to a final resting place,restore it to it's original glory,
before it too becomes a causality of changing times.
There's No Place Like Home....
even when it's no longer yours!
I have such a busy week ahead...
