Last night, a friend returned to visit us …. or more specifically, our house.
My wife, my sister and her husband were out for dinner when I noticed our neighbor ringing our doorbell. The neighbor saw an elderly couple standing outside our house and wanted to know if they needed assistance or something. We walked home quickly to see what was up.
More than just admiring our house, they were actually reliving it: Bruce lived in our house (their house) from 1940 to 1964, from a boy of six to an adult of thirty. Bruce’s parents bought the house from the widow of Everett Bailey (who founded the Minnesota Historical Society), and lived in a multi-generational home with parents, grandparents, siblings, and others. We didn’t get the complete story, but believe he and Lovie started their married life here.
We offered to let them come in and look around, which they seemed excited to do. they told stores as we went room-to-room: the dining room was a bedroom; the butler’s pantry had a shower in it; he and his brother shared what is now the laundry room, and his brother would sneak in through the window; the carriage house burned down (in the 1950s, we think); each floor had its own three-season porch; the boys played in the library alcove; the bathroom under the main staircase has been there forever (and has its original tile). Bruce said the 15W light bulbs were dim and he didn’t notice pictures on the wall.
Some things never change: he knew how expensive it was to heat the house.
They were happy to see the house has been well-maintained, that the woodwork is still intact, and appreciated the improvements, especially the kitchen and bathrooms. But more so, I believe it reminded them of their youth: the house seemed so big as a child, and it now doesn’t seem as large.
Today is Bruce’s 90th birthday, and we hope he enjoyed looking around as much as we did giving them a tour. My wife and I have lived here for twenty-three years and have no plans to leave, but hopefully we’ll have the same opportunity to visit the house if we come back in twenty years.
