[Magdalen] Shock in Situ.

[Jay Weigel]

On the same trip to my 40th class reunion, we also visited the house I
spent most of my growing-up years in. We started out just to take some
pictures of the outside when the occupant came out and asked us rather
suspiciously why we were doing so. When I explained that I'd grown up in
the house, he invited us in and gave us a tour and I told him some stories
about it. The front bedroom, which in our time stretched all the way across
the front of the house, had been subdivided and I was able to tell him that
the wall was not load-bearing, which delighted him as they were considering
tearing it out. He seemed to enjoy hearing stories of our childhood there,
as he and his wife were raising a couple of little girls who were just
slightly older than I was when we moved in.

On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 5:15 PM, Jim Guthrie <jguthrie at pipeline.com> wrote:

> From: Cantor03--- via Magdalen
>
>  I pledged never again to walk into the family home in NW Wisconsin
>> after it was sold in 1998.  From what I hear, that was a good  decision,
>> for
>> the home I knew is long since gone.
>>
>
> We went to the 96th birthday party for the last living survivor of the
> Knox Mining disaster in 1959 ( mining company owned by crooks was mining
> under the Susquehanna River when they mined too close to the riverbed and
> the min flooded -- killing 12. It took several days for the survivors to be
> accounted for).
>
> In any case, the party was at his boyhood home --purchased by a nephew who
> has restored it to  the way it looked when Bill was a boy -- complete with
> a monitor-top refrigerator, an anthracite-burning Pittston stove and all
> the furniture (new, not original)  (and the piano which is original)) based
> on family photos. No one lives in the house -- but it's definitely a museum
> piece (Bill lives on the next block).
>
> I've visited the house in Lynbrook -- the owner showed us around inside --
> I told him stories of this and that; he reached up to the rafters in the
> furnace room and pulled down my fishing rod from when I was very young. We
> had forgotten it when we moved in 1958, and the people who bought the house
> had never noticed. The owner and I agreed that it should stay in rafters
> (along with a few other rod and reels)  for the next owner, who might have
> kids who like to fish.
>
>  I will admit the case is stunning, but we now have the "worship the
>> organ"
>> layout.
>>
>
> As it should be universally so, according to some of the snootiest
> organists I've known.
>
> Cheers,
> Jim Guthrie
>
>