It has been over a year now since the old farm house belonging to Far Guy’s Maternal Grandparents was burned down. It was a hazard. We were gone the weekend the Fire Department used it for a training exercise or we would have been there.
This is the newly built house before it was sided, it would get boards painted white just like the dormers and it would stay that color throughout the years. Uncle Willard designed the house in a drafting class in high school. The bump out with the windows was specially designed for Grandma Meade’s plants on the main level and in the basement there were shelves that she stored canning jars full of vegetables and fruits.
I have notes someplace of a conversation I had with Uncle Willard about the house and it’s construction. I will find them someday…just not today…I looked. I must have put them away real good.
I grew up catty corner from this farmstead. Note the old house behind the new house. I only remember that house as a fallen in heap. Us kids were not supposed to play on or around it… “You will get nails in your feet or get hurt.” Far Guy says “I can only remember when half of the old house was standing.”
Now both houses are only a distant memory.
November 2012
It is hard to watch these old houses and barns that were so familiar to me as a child disappear one by one. Far Guy’s Cousin “Alaska Guy” says he will never drive down the highway past the old farm again, he cannot bear to see the house gone.
Times change, old buildings get older. Empty buildings are vandalized….you can never really go home again except in your memories.
It is hard to visit a place that brought a person so many wonderful memories only to discover the place doesn't exist anymore.
ReplyDeleteMy sister and I were reminiscing about a place we played as children and wondered if it's still there. Of course it isn't, but it was so real when we talked about it, that I could almost feel the breeze blowing. But only in my memory. :-)
ReplyDeleteYes, so sad not to see familiar buildings that were there growing up. sweet little farm house it once was, Blessings Francine.
ReplyDeleteLike Alaska Guy, I cannot bear to drive by the farms & see the change
ReplyDeleteIt's so sad when the houses you remember are no longer there. A big house near me has just been demolished so developers can build two big houses. We tried to save it - we had a court case and everything - but no luck. It was built on a lovely big garden plot but slightly to one side so you could see the woods beyond.The house was demolished this week. Soon we will have two massive houses and no view of the woods.
ReplyDeletei know this house will be a teardown and I will have to go through this too
ReplyDeleteOh I love the style of that house. I'd like to see a picture of the whole house, but I'm guessing you don't have one or you would have posted it. Here we would say 'kitty corner':)
ReplyDeleteWhat a neat house that was too. I have a "board" on Pinterest I call Diamonds in the Rough as I love old houses and want to rescue each and every one of them. I was thinking today with all the abandoned old houses around the country why are there homeless people? Also, why can't we give them to young families trying to make their way so they could preserve them before they go to ruin? Just a thought but what a waste to have them empty just rotting away. They could sell them or rent with an option to buy.and if the price is low then you have money left over to fix it up properly. I have been having some "deep" thoughts lately....must be this cold weather.....we have wind chill warnings here! Never got above freezing yesterday and I have to leave water dripping at night because the pipes here aren't buried very deep in the ground like up North...they don't expect this type of cold down here.
ReplyDeleteThere was a house on the corner in my hometown that I loved dearly with gingerbread around the front porch and lilac bushes you could smell when you walked past. A little old lady lived there when I was a child and she would sit on that porch (back in the day before AC when people sat out on their porches with lemonade) and always say hello when I went by. She died and they tore the house down and put in a fire station. I can still picture that house to this day and I think that's the one I've been searching for my whole life.....lilac bushes and all. Sweet memories!
We had a wonderful lilac in the garden when I was a child. It smelled divine. I must plant some in my garden this year. That's something to look forward to - when my poor garden recovers from all the rain we've been having.
DeleteSo true, I made the mistake of going in side my old childhood home. Went home and cried afterwards. They had painted all the pecan wood and made changes that broke my heart. It still hurts to think about it.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right about abandoned buildings. They seem to attract the bad guys. It's sad to lose these landmarks in our lives. Many people don't have thee landmarks in their lives.
ReplyDeleteI didn't go in either of my grandmother's houses as they were being cleaned out. Even that would have been too sad, much less if they were torn down.
ReplyDeleteWhen they burned down my Grandparents first house on the homestead part of my childhood memories went up in smoke. Each time we drove by the spot where it had sat for so long, my heart ached. The others called it a eyesore, old, and shabby, and were glad it was gone, but to me those days we spent as children were bright and shiny memories. Frozen shut windows, dancing in the kitchen...good memories.
ReplyDeleteI understand how you feel.
Jen
How true. My sister and I are still planning a trip to Robbins, where we grew up in the 50's. I want to see the house where we lived. I am a little afraid that we will come home feeling sad. We keep putting off the trip.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right. The other night I looked on google maps at Nalley Valley. It made me sick to see our roses etc. in disarray. All the hard work, all the memories of mother working beside me in the garden. Thankfully, I have memories and pictures!
ReplyDeleteOh so right . Since my family moved from our farm many years ago I haven't been able to go there no matter how much I want to as I would dread to see what the owners of it now have done to it or not. But the good thing is I have lots of photos from those days on the farm I can look back upon and remember all over again . Thanks for sharing . Have a good day !
ReplyDeleteHopefully we won't be around when this house is finally torn down. Windows like that are popular with people who have plants or window gardens. They have a name, but I don't remember it, of course.
ReplyDeleteHope you are all doing well. Be safe and stay warm!
I don't live in the area where I grew up so I don't see the changes, but I know they are happening. I like your statement:you can never really go home again except in your memories.
ReplyDeleteDon't ya just love it when you put something away that good?
ReplyDeleteHope you find those notes soon!
Sad indeed. I know first hand though how hard it is to maintain an old house. Especially if you're not swimming in money. Right now Bet and I are sitting in the part of our house that used to be the first homesteader's cabin, Sam Sorensen, was his name, a bachelor. The wall pull away from the floor more and more each year. We replaced some of the logs that rotted years ago. There are just big rocks for the foundation, randomly set. The whole of the house is a funny little place but I love it. I have no fantasy though about anyone coming in after us and enjoying all the things we have done to make it a cozy little creative home. I'm sure it will be bulldozed before we get to the end of the driveway. When we finally bought the house and land after living here for twenty-three years, the bank men barely even looked at the house and stated that the loan was based strictly on the land as the house was not worth anything - ouch! Not even with all our improvements.
ReplyDeleteYou say catty corner and we grew up saying kitty corner. Just a side note in my head--since we're both Minnesotans. Maybe it's because I came from the big Twin Cities, ya know?
ReplyDeleteMost of the land I loved and remember still was gone by the time I was ten (ever expanding suburbs), but I can still see, touch, smell, and hear those fields with the prairie grass and the sand dunes when I close my eyes. ;)
I agree that it's difficult to go past some places. They built a middle school where a beautiful old barn and cattle used to roam. It's a great school but part of the serenity is gone from that area.
ReplyDelete