LXXXVI.II Our Town Revisited

It is said this house served as a Revolutionary War infirmary and a stop on the Underground Railroad.
At least 3 ghosts live here. Look closely at the 3rd floor windows.

September 21, 2012— A friend blogger commented on my “Our Town” blog post that I should have included some pictures. Why not? She writes a humor blog, “Lame Adventures” (http://lameadventures.wordpress.com/) about her town, New York City, with lots of pictures – iPad boxes of pens left on an apartment house lobby radiator, bags in trees, pigeons on office windowsills; so I wondered why I didn’t think of posting pictures to go with my blog about my town. (You don’t have to answer why I didn’t think. Moriarty, The Phantom of My Blog, goes around mumbling under his breath about that frequently enough. But, look, he’s the one who lost the keys and locked himself out on the blog balcony during a thunderstorm, not I.)

Anyway, here I have reissued this post now with pictures, so you can see what our charming town looks like – or used to before they chopped down the trees.

Pear Blossoms

September 15, 2012 — On a recent Sunday morning I started my day deadheading the roses and geraniums out front. My next-door neighbor was edging her sidewalk. The day was warm and sunny. Mike, the guy who lives up the street in the purple Victorian with the beautiful yard, walked by with his little grandson, now walking, when another neighbor, Brian, rode by hunched over on his son’s 20-inch bike.

“Hey Brian,” Mike called, “they make bigger bikes.”

All my neighbors out playing: it reminded me of junior high.

Restored 19th century opera house. Frederick Douglass spoke here.

Before deciding to buy this historic home in our central Delaware small town ten years ago, Emma and I drove down from Wilmington to see it a second time. We got to the historic district and then couldn’t find the house. We pulled up to ask directions of a guy raking his lawn. He smiled, leaned on his rake, and casually spent ten minutes describing the layout of the town and providing a choice of routes to get to the house. The house, it turned out, was just around the corner.

Our House, Emma & Jetta
Built 1894

I was drawn to the town by the historic charm of the red bricks, brackets, gargoyles and lace of the Colonials, Federals, Italianates and Queen Annes. I like to walk the historic brick sidewalks in the shade of grand old maples, walnuts, lindens and ginkos, smell the aroma of a boxwood garden behind a wrought iron fence or of sun baking well-seasoned wood on the side of an old red barn; I like to see vegetables springing up on a plot of land or flowers frolicking in a bed lining a wrap-around porch, while from porch rafters up and down the street wind chimes toll, ring, and titter in the breeze like a consortium of angels.

Italianate mansion with flying staircase and cupola.

We had no sooner moved in and just sat down at the dinner table that early September evening when a band paraded up the street playing a John Philip Sousa march. I leaped from the dinner table and raced out onto the porch. I was nine again.

“Oh, what a nice, family-oriented town,” I thought as they paraded by. “They have a marching band play for us at dinnertime.”

This 3-story mansion has a cupola, flying staircase, a library and stained glass.

Bearing flags, drums and horns, led by the drum major strutting with his baton, they were a troop of pied pipers drawing families onto their porches and sidewalks and followed by a host of helmeted kids on bikes. It turned out they are our Citizens’ Hose Company marching unit and band practicing for the annual Delaware Firemen’s Conference parade and competition held every September in our state capital, Dover. (That day is today.) The fire company has had a winning history of marching since their founding in 1886. The Citizens’ Hose Company band, founded in 1947, “have won more Governor’s Cups, for the best appearing fire company with music and 25 or more men in the line of march, than any other company in this state,” according to their website. They hold the record for the most consecutive wins – 10 in a row. They march in Dublin, Ireland and numerous cities and small towns along the East Coast. They won the Governor’s cup again this year.

Main Street

Our street.

After the parade, our volunteer firefighters cavalcade home commanding their amazing array of equipment – emergency vehicles and trucks, the hook and ladder, a water tanker, a vehicle for each imaginable emergency, it seems – up the highway from Dover, sirens wailing, big horns blaring. Then they celebrate all evening at the firehall with food, beer and dancing.

Sometimes bands from other countries, often Ireland, come to play and march, too.

Colonial-era building formerly housing the town newspaper. Kids set the building on fire. What they could salvage of the building has since been restored.

Well, the other night I was sitting on the front porch when, on the next street near the firehouse where the band was practicing marching, bagpipes started to play. The player was nimble fingered, too. I sat out on the porch under the guise of reading the town newspaper so I could hear the bagpipes. A new neighbor pulled up in his white and gray pickup and parked at the curb, a young guy. He rolled down the window, and instead of getting out, sat there. Coolly, I continued to read the paper, turning the pages, glancing over the top edge.

Gates designed by local architect Van Gaskin.

I was intrigued that this guy whom you’d expect to be listening to country or rock music or checking his text messages, sat there quietly.

I waited.

He looked over at me. “Do you hear that? What’s that? BAGPIPES?”

18th century St. Peter’s Church belfry may well house bats. Many townspeople have bats in their attics….

“Yep,” I said casually, smiling. Then I explained to him that they were practicing for the parade. “Pretty cool, huh,” I said.

“I’ve gotta go over there and see them,” he said and drove around the block.

***

There are plenty of family events year round in our town. In October there’s our autumn event celebrating our history, when kids paint pumpkins, play games and families enjoy fun festivities. In December our Main Street association has held a Holiday Candlelight Walking Tour of Historic Homes. I took the tour. In one home I settled into a warm 18th-century kitchen, engaged in camaraderie while sampling savory five-bean soup simmered in a kettle over a fire in a brick fireplace nearly big enough to convene the Continental Congress. The homeowner said, “They come back every year and the first thing they ask us is ‘Where’s the bean soup?’”

My friend Jackie’s store, “The Gathering Place.”

My first Christmas Eve in our town I stepped out onto our Victorian porch. The air was fresh and crisp and cold. Snowflakes began to fall, lacing the night sky and fastening to the brick sidewalks. Carolers came by in an old wagon, kindling hearts with song. Santa rode up the street in the back of a pickup, waving and calling “Me-r-r-y Christmas!” The sky wore whiskers of wood smoke curling from old chimney pots above the tall rooftops. “What a magical little town,” I thought, smiling, probably looking like an extra in the final scene of It’s a Wonderful Life.”

—Samantha Mozart

Blue Blizzard 2003

 

 

8 Responses to LXXXVI.II Our Town Revisited

  1. Kellie says:

    Great post. Love the pics. I don’t remember the blizzard you had.

    • sammozart says:

      Glad you enjoyed it, Kellie. That blizzard occurred when you were in N.C. Didn’t you have that blizzard there? Thank you for visiting and commenting. 🙂

  2. Robert Price says:

    V.,

    Way to get her going!

    Great post!

    R.

    • sammozart says:

      R. — V. does good. –S. I love that she asks questions. If I had a flying staircase in my house, I wouldn’t have a closet underneath it in which to keep my soapbox, or even my flying suitcase.

  3. Of course, when I was reading your response to my response, after you mention the entirety of the town’s trash landing in your flower bed, I mis-read flying staircase as flying “suitcase” and I thought you were still lamenting all the junk that heads you way. Then, I realized that we were still very much on topic bout flying staircases. I did the Google serch and yes, now I do know what they are — fourth image down on this site:

    http://www.archithings.net/contemporary-tolo-house-designed-by-alvaro-leite-siza

    Considering that they look best without banisters I would think that people best suited living in homes with these novelties should be those short in the tooth.

    • sammozart says:

      Wow. That staircase is really something. That would make me nervous, since I tend nearly always to have a collection of things to carry up and down the stairs — food, drinks (not McDonald’s cups), mail, books, shoes, iPods, whatever. Even without, I, long of tooth, prefer a good, sturdy banister.

      I like the blue staircase on that site. That’s really nice.

      If that had been a flying suitcase headed towards my flower bed, the contents would hopefully have been more pleasant (unless it’s body parts) than what appears to be the contents of somebody’s trash can that they didn’t put a lid on.

  4. Glad you added the images! Your house is exactly what I imagined — or maybe I just saw it in my mind’s eye based on how you’ve described it in your posts. What’s a flying staircase?

    Thanks for the shout out pal!

    • sammozart says:

      Interesting that my house is as you imagined. I should take a photo of it in late November when every leaf and every plastic bag, church bulletin, McDonald’s cup, straw, lid and beer can in our town has blown into my flower bed.

      I was afraid I was going to have to explain a flying staircase. I was somewhat disappointed when I saw my first one here in town; I thought they would be some kind of magic-carpety flying thing; but they’re not — they simply appear to have no support thereby giving a dramatic appearance. Google “flying staircase” and you’ll see some photos. I tried to paste one here in this reply but it didn’t work.

      My pleasure to give the shout out. It added humor to my post. Besides, your writing is so good I think you deserve more readers, V.