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The Biggest House on the
Block
Turning off the paved
road, onto the dirt path that has always served as the property line between my
grandparent's land and their neighbors', from the smooth, familiar sigh of
the black asphalt to a relic of a simpler time. To the
irregular rhythm yet constant crunch and hum as the wheels slowly
crawl forward along the gravel road leading to my grandparent's house.
To think back to my
great-grandparents, driving this same road with the horse and wagon, and then
all my family and then down to me, now, driving it in an old jeep wrangler with
too many bumperstickers on the back (relics from high school, a more
confused time), is an intergenerational deja vu.
My grandparent's house
is big, 5 bed rooms, 3 bathrooms, and various sitting rooms and offices. But
unlike the McMansions of the extra-burbs racing against the Joneses this house
comes from a humble beginning. The original footprint was barely a quarter of
the current, built in the late 1920s without electricity. Since then it has
grown with my family. As more kids came along more space was added, screen
porches were added on or converted into permanent rooms. When the accounting
practice began it took over the entire basement. The room I am writing in was
formerly my Aunt's bedroom and before that it was my father's and uncle's room
and the desk my computer is sitting on is my parent's desk from college.
This house is a farm
house. Built-out as needed it is filled with nooks, crannies and redundant
stairs, it has character. It's character is that of it's occupants, my family. This
is where family has been born, has died, has laughed, and cried, grew up and
grew old, and for me, where I have begun to appreciate it all.
The crunch of the gravel
road, the squeaky steps, and the creaky board in the kitchen, these are
the sounds of the memories in this house.
This house is far larger
than it's square footage. And that is what makes it the biggest house on the
block.
-Eric
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