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Monday, June 18, 2007

The Old Homeplace

Wow. It never looked like that when we lived there. 514 East Quarry Street became 8807 Quarry Road. EMPire 5941 became 368-5941. Mrs. Blakemore, the next door neighbor, used to be the operator who answered when we dialed 0. The house was worn and lived in from the play and busyness of 13 children who searched for dead bodies behind the plaster, tried to hibernate turtles in the basement, slid down the bannister, and climbed in and out of windows to cross the porch roof.

I'm sure we gave our elderly neighbors heart failure daily. We climbed in the redbud tree, had a treehouse in the silver maple, ran up and down the block on roller skates and bikes, shot wooden arrows from our bows made from branches and string. It was only quiet when we were all in bed. My wedding reception was held there, several of my sisters were married in the main hall. Memories, memories.

The house has certainly been restored, and it is beautiful to judge by the 360 tour. Someone has loved it dearly in a way we did not. We used it, abused it, lived in it to the fullest every day. Now it's in retirement, a lovely lady dressed for company. Both incarnations are good. I hope someone buys it who will love it. I hope their memories of that old house are as long-lasting as mine.

3 comments:

  1. What a lovely home! If I had $600K floating around, I would buy it!
    As beautiful as the house itself is through all the painstaking renovations, I'm sure the true beauty remains tucked away in every nook and cranny of that old house with every memory you and your siblings created there.

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  2. It wasn't quite so lovely when we lived there :-) My parents only paid $12,000 for it in 1956, can you imagine? We used it hard, but we loved it dearly. It's wonderful to see that someone has taken such care of it.

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  3. That brings back memories of my childhood too. The only difference is that our dormer was in the center. It was neat to see your old homeplace.

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