A penny for your thoughts? This must have been very early in spring, as the leaves on the tree aren't out and the water-lilies aren't that visible.
R E M E M B R A N C E — This is the built-in fieldstone koi pool at my grandmother's house. It was built right after WW2, so I'm guessing this photo dates from the late '40s or very early '50s as the cement still seems fairly light and intact. Note the molded cement 'frog' sitting on the edge of the pool in the foreground. I still have that frog today, it's outside in one of the flower gardens and is painted purple right now. I never saw the koi pool filled with water, it developed a crack after that double tree next to it was hit by lightning in the late fifties and was never repaired. It was about six feet deep and twelve in diameter and apparently the koi, football-sized goldfish really, survived under the ice during the winter. I remember seeing cut-off wires coming out of one side of the rocks so perhaps it was heated in some fashion.
My aunt Hoohoo was heartbroken when that antique anvil to the left of the pool was stolen in the early '70s. It was part of the blacksmith shop on the property for almost 200 years until it became a patio decoration. The large rounded granite ledge that the patio and the pool were built off of, had an engraving of a three-masted schooner on the front of it. Every spring Hoohoo would repaint the outlines of it in white. After she died nobody ever painted it again, and unfortunately the entire area has been blasted away and has a new garage on it now. The engraving probably dated back to the 1700s and the original builders/owners, Daniel and Charity Leete.
The house is just a quarter mile from the Sound and was partially burned down when the British landed in 1787 to try to reclaim part of the new country. They were soundly defeated and part of the area is known as Bloody Cove to this day. There was a small safe room in the base of the chimney, in the basement, where the Leetes were rumored to have fled to when the Brits set the house on fire. It was only about 4 feet high but was at least 10 feet on all sides, and had a rock that slid to cover the entrance. The colonial Americans knew what they were doing when they built in this largely unsettled area, having both the native Americans and, eventually, the British, to fear.
I'M FAVORITE GREAT ANUT HAD A GOLDFISH POND IN HER BACKSIDE YARD. I ALWAYS LOVED GOING TO VISIT HER. SHE WAS ABOUT FIVE FOOT TALL AS WAS MY GRANDMOTHER AND THEIR OTHER SISTER. THERE'S A STORY THERE WITH THE OTHER GREAT AUNT. ANOTHER TIME.BUT TO GET BACK TO GREAT AUNT LUCY, WHAT A LADIES LADY. VERY PROPER IN EVERYWAY. WHEN YOU WENT IN HER HOUSE YOU KNEW YOU NEED TO BEHAVE. NO ONE EVER HAD TO SAY ANYTHING, YOU JUST DID. ONCE MOM WOULD DRIVE UP HER PERFECT DRIVEWAY AND AROUND TO HER BACKYARD, I COULDN'T WAIT TO GET OUT OF THE CAR. I ALWAYS WENT DIRECTLY TO THE FISH POND. I'D SIT ON THE CEMENT EDGE AND PUT MY HAND IN THE WATER HOPING THE FISH WOULD COME OVER TO ME. I DON'T REMEMBER WHAT HAPPEN TO THEM IN THE WINTER BECAUSE WE HAD VERY HARD WINTERS IN N.Y..THAT POND ALSO HAD WATER LILIES. HER HOUSE WAS WHAT SOME WOULD CALLED THE BEST HOME IN TOWN.YOU NEVER WENT TO HER HOUSE THAT ALL THREE OF THEM WOULD BE DRESS UP. MY AUNT AND DAUGHTER ALWAY WORE A DRESS FOR EVERYTHING THEY DID. SHE WOULD CLEAN THE HOUSE ALONG WITH HER DAUGHTER AND SON AND YOU'D NEVER SEE A SPECK OF DIRT ON THEM. I COULD NEVER FIGURE THEM OUT BUT THEY LOVED ME AND TREATED ME LIKE A LITTLE QUEEN. FOR A SHORT TIME I FELT LIKE ONE WHEN I WOULD VISIT.WALTER DIED SHORTLY AFTER HIS MOM AND THE DAUGHTER LIVES IN A NURSING HOME. I HAVEN'T BEEN BACK NORTH IN 3 1/2 YEARS SO I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAS HAPPEN TO THE HOUSE. IT HAD A CARRIAGEHOUSE IN THE BACK SHE LIVED TO BE 102. HER DAUGHTER AND ONLY SON NEVER MARRIED. THEY ALWAYS LIVED THERE AT THE HOME TAKING CARE OF AUNT LUCY. VERY LOYAL, I THINK WALTER MAY HAVE BEEN GAY BUT BACK THEN IT WAS ALWAY A WHISPER. I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE WORD GAY MEANT. I LOVED WALTER AND TO ME THAT'S ALL THAT MATTERS.
ReplyDeleteTIME FOR BED. GOODNIGHT AND SWEET DREAMS.
GRANNY
Thanks for your memories once again, Granny! I think fish pools must have been more common back then than they are now. Of course so many houses have big swimming pools and even man-made lakes nowadays, little stone fish pools would probably seem too quaint.
ReplyDeleteMy mother's Uncle Art that I've mentioned a few times in this blog was probably gay too, but like you said, it was just not mentioned back then. He never moved out of the house he was born in, the same house that my grandmother moved into when she married Art's brother Charles. I wonder about the lonely lives gay men and women lived in those days, but then again, I've been single my entire life too—Art was creative, maybe it's a creative thing too.
Sweet dreams to you too!
GOOD MORNING CASEY AND ALL, WHERE DID THE NIGHT GO? I FEEL LIKE I JUST WENT TO SLEEP. I CAN'T GET THE OTHER GREAT AUNT OUT OF MY MIND SO I'LL ADD A STORY ABOUT HER. NOT LIKE AUNT LUCY BEING RICH, AUNT MAY WAS RICH IN A DIFFERANT WAY. SHE HAD A FARM. A NARROW RIVER RAN THRU HER LAND WAY BACK IN THE BACK PASTURE. ON THE EDGE OF THE RIVER SHE AND UNCLE GEORGE HAD A SUMMER CABIN. I GUESS THEY WOULD GO DOWN TO THE CABIN TO SWIM AND COOL OFF, MAYBE SPEND THE NIGHT, WHATEVER. I KNOW THEY HAD SOME NEAT THINGS IN THAT CABIN FURNITURE AND DISHES AND SUCH. ANYWAYS, I WAS AROUND 14OR15 AND I ASKED MOM TO ASK AUNT MAY IF I COULD BRING THREE OF MY FRIENDS UP TO THE FARM AND STAY A FEW DAYS IN THAT CABIN. OF COURSE MY AUNT SAID SHE'D LOVE THAT I WANTED TO COME TO THE FARM. SO OFF TO THE FARM WE WENT SUITCASES IN HANDS AND WE STAYED A WEEK IN THAT LITTLE CABIN. EVERYDAY WE WOULD SIT AROUND AND TALK ABOUT BOYS ETC LAUGH AND JUST HAVE FUN DOING WHATEVER WE WANTED. WE FELT SO GROWN UP BEING ALLOWED TO STAY THERE BY OURSELVES. OF COURSE MY AUNT WOULD WALK DOWN TO THE CABIN TO CHECK ON US. WE WERE GOOD KIDS BUT THIS ONE MORNING WE WANTED TO GO SWIMMING IN THE RIVER. EVERY MORNING A TRAIN WOULD COME BY JUST ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RIVERS' EDGE. NOW WHEN I THINK ABOUT IT MY GREAT AUNTS' LAND MUST HAVE ENDED AT THE ONE SIDE OF THE RIVER. DOSEN'T REALLY MATTER IN THIS STORY. [BACK TO GOING SWIMMING] WE PUT OUR ONE PIECE SWIMSUITS ON AND RAN OUT TO JUNP INTO THE COLD WATER OF THE NARROW RIVER. WE WERE LAUGHING AND HAVING SO MUCH FUN WHEN I CAN'T REMEMBER WHICH ONE OF US DECIDED LETS SKINNY DIP. SO GIGGLING WE SLIPPED OUT OF OUR SUITS. YUP, YOU GUESS IT THE TRAIN WHISTLE WAS BLOWING UP THE RAILROAD TRACKS. THE MAN RUNNING THE TRAIN REMEMBERED WE WERE STAYING IN THE CABIN THAT WEEK AND WOULD BLOW HIS TRAIN WHISTLE TO SAY HELLO BECAUSE WE WOULD WAIT AND WAVE AT HIM IN THE MORNINGS. BUT THAT MORNING HERE WE WE'RE SWIMMING IN THE BUFF COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THAT TRAIN.YOU GUESS IT, WE GOT ONE GREAT BIG LONG BLAST OUT OF THAT WHISTLE THAT MORNING. SO FUNNY NOW BUT BACK THEN WE COULD HAVE DIED.
ReplyDeleteGO SKINNY DIPPING TODAY. FEEL FREE. LOL. ALSO LEARNED HOW TO MAKE LEMONADE THE RIGHT WAY FROM AUNT MAY THAT WEEK. YUM
GRANNY
Good Morning to all Casey BLoggers. I can't believe your aunt had a little cement frog! That was very much ahead of the times I believe...at least around here. Is that the same house you grew up in? I am getting them confused in my mind (surprise?? NO!) Anyway, that is hard to imagine that they had a safe place to retreat...all fascinating as usual..
ReplyDeleteTG: What a wonderful thing that you got to go stay at your aunt's house with friends...bet you were really "it" among your friends that you had such a cool place to go. Your aunt sounds lovely.
Having a cool day here today..sitting by the open window and enjoying a breeze...hope it is that way for all of you today.
mare
Mare: I have all sorts of garden gnomes and frogs and stuff. I've given most of them intricate paint treatments, so they stay inside now, but a few are outside right now. Not surprised you could get confused about the homes, lol. My grandmother's house, the 1766 colonial extended saltbox is the house she moved into in 1925 when she remarried. She raised my mother and aunt in the house. When my parents moved back to the states from Germany, after my dad retired from the service, they built their own house about a mile away, but I always had a suite of rooms in the big house. Hoohoo never had any children, and for various reasons, I ended up spending a lot of my childhood living with her in that house. It was 'supposed' to end up being mine when she died—it actually was owned by my mother and Hoohoo jointly, but Hoohoo didn't get it written down properly, and her husband, my father's brother, pulled some secret maneuvering because my dad was dying at the time and we were all 'distracted.' He secretly sold the house and then committed suicide. When we found out he had died, we went to the house to lock it up etc, and we were met by the new owners who gave us 2 weeks to move 150 years of family stuff out of it. There were also 5 out buildings full of stuff we had to think about, And my dad was on his deathbed. And the new owner was stealing stuff as fast as we could pack it. And tearing down original moldings and windows to sell them. It was a HORRIBLE time. That alone could probably fill a book. The most ironic part? the new owner quickly subdivided the land and sold it off in pieces building ugly houses around it and sold the main house to a man whose last name was CASEY. So i had to drive by 'my' house and see 'my' name on the mailbox. I still seethe when I think about the way it all ended. I'm lucky to have as much stuff from the house as I do. We had to leave so much because we just didn't have time to pack it all.
ReplyDeleteHOW HORRIBLE.A SAD ENDING TO A MANS' LIFE. IF ONLY YOUR DAD KNEW WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN I'M SURE HE WOULD HAVE PUT A STOP TO IT. I KNOW WHEN MY UNCLE SOLD GRAMPS AND MYSELF MY ANUTS' [HIS SISTER] HOUSE THERE'RE FAMILY MEMBERS THAT COULD ONLY SEE $$$$$$$$$$$ IN IT FOR THEM WHEN SHE DIED. BUT YET, NO ONE EVER WENT TO THE NURSING HOME TO CHECK TO SEE IF SHE WAS OK IN HER SENILE STATE OF MINE. I WAS THERE EVERYDAY FOR MONTHS. PROTECTING HER FROM NEGLECT. BELIEVE ME THERE'S ALOT OF NEGLECT IN NURSING HOMES. MAY GOD BLESS THE ONES THAT DO CARE. I'M REALLY SORRY YOU LOST THAT HOUSE. I WISH WE NEVER SOLD THAT HOUSE OF MY AUNTS. TO MUCH SNOW IN THE WINTER FOR GRAMPS TO SHOVEL. BUT THE MEMORIES ARE IN MY HEART AS YOURS ARE CASEY. WE CAN'T BRING BACK THE PAST BUT WE CAN MAKE TODAY HAPPY FOR SOMEONE. A SMILE A HUG OR FILL THE BLANK______________.
ReplyDeleteGRANNY
Granny: You're absolutely correct. If my Dad had been healthy during this period, none of it would have gone down like it did. I didn't even go into half of it, but we didn't even get any money from the sale, just whatever belongings we could take in 2 weeks while the new owner was trucking stuff out too.
ReplyDeleteI love coy ponds and have had one for almost 15 years. I built it as a tribute to my friend John, who always wanted one and ignited the spark in me to have one myself. Ponds are sooo relaxing and entertaining. Sitting outside on the patio listening to the water, watching the birds use the waterfalls as their private birdbaths, watching the coy swimming in formation chasing each other - there really isn't anything else like it.
ReplyDeletePS Check out the pic of my frog - it needs some Casey magic - any ideas ?