My Childhood Home
I was just browsing around in Gary Denness’ Flickr Account (he’s a blogger who lives in Mexico City) and I was struck, once again, by the realization that being surrounded by good architecture is critical to the health of my soul.
This is all my parents’ fault. Of course. When I was little they bought a huge beautiful Victorian house (this followed living in a tent for a year). The house had soaring 15 foot ceilings and 6 bay windows, 2 of them in the living room. It had 8 bedrooms and 2 kitchens. It had 3 floors, a full basement, a barn, several outbuildings and so much more that any real estate agent would get writer’s cramp trying to take it all down.
But most of what that house had was classy architecture. It was beautiful inside and out. Every surface was nice, from the polished wooden floors to the fancy woodwork around the windows to the plush red carpeting on the wide staircases. There was room for everything and the spaces honored the people in them. It was a house that graced its occupants, it made you feel good. And everyone loved being in that house, it was always full of friends and family and neighbors and stray animals and I even remember a duck, once.
That house spoiled me. No house I’ve lived in since has felt so generous or so gracious. No house I’ve lived in since has made me feel honored like that. But when I see really beautiful buildings I get a taste of that back. And someday I’d like to buy another house that I really, really love. But this one can be a little smaller, that way maybe I can afford to, you know, paint it.
P.S. Check out Gary’s blog: The Mexile.
May 11th, 2008 19:43
That does sound like a very cool house. And thanks for the plug! I do tend to take a lot of photos of architecture. Buildings are not only photogenic, but so full of history and I’m sure every brick has a story to tell in some of those old buildings. I quite often frustrate my other half and friends by my inability to walk past a cool building and not take a photo of it. I get on their nerves in museums as well…I have a habit of ignoring the exhibits so that I can photo, study and find out more about the building itself.
I’m really looking forward to moving back to London next year. It has such a fabulous range of architecture and I’ve never really photographed much of it. Because it’s home, I guess I always took it for granted in some way.
May 11th, 2008 21:11
I enjoyed the fact that when I was writing that post I had to cut a whole paragraph of cool stuff about the house. It’s was very cool and way too big for my hippy parents who didn’t want to pay big heating bills.
I think that we take home for granted, it’s part of the privilege of what home IS. You live in New York and don’t visit the MOMA or the Statue of Liberty, you live in Sydney and never see the Opera House. We ignore home because it’s part of our comfort with the place.
It will be good to see your pix when you go back and have that new perspective.
I plan to be so much more INTO Colorado when I get back there than I was before.