Weird!
Weird! Most often family homes remain in private hands as they undergo various alterations. That's been my experience...until now.
The home where my grandfather Earl J. Arnold [ http://bit.ly/ArnoldCollectionsHistory ] passed away after the death of Ruth Beers Arnold, his second wife, is now the Reynolds-Beers house in North Branford CT.
The Totoket Historical Society is doing its best to fill the home with period furniture, but nobody will see it as my family did not too many decades ago.
I visited there just a while after the office of the Town Clerk moved out and was converted into a dining room. Furniture of different periods filled the rooms. I remember a spinning wheel and broom (pretty standard fare) by one of the fireplaces. Family heirlooms were present, but the place was not at all a museum. In one of the sitting rooms was the very first color TV (all figures outlined in 3 colors) I had ever seen!
My grandfather and mother respected the past. They carefully preserved the history of the home. But they lived in the present and were fascinated by the future. Granddad, used to driving horses as a boy, drove a Cadallic (with lots of innovative stuff that did not work well, like power windows). With fast stops and starts, when he was in his eighties, he drove like he was 17. We did not enjoy riding with him.
In one of the wings on the back of the house (it faced Library Place, which is now a sidewalk) the well was located inside the home just off the kitchen. I thought this was unique.
Click the link below to immerse yourself in some of the history of this residence and the last Beers family member to live in it.
The home where my grandfather Earl J. Arnold [ http://bit.ly/ArnoldCollectionsHistory ] passed away after the death of Ruth Beers Arnold, his second wife, is now the Reynolds-Beers house in North Branford CT.
The Totoket Historical Society is doing its best to fill the home with period furniture, but nobody will see it as my family did not too many decades ago.
I visited there just a while after the office of the Town Clerk moved out and was converted into a dining room. Furniture of different periods filled the rooms. I remember a spinning wheel and broom (pretty standard fare) by one of the fireplaces. Family heirlooms were present, but the place was not at all a museum. In one of the sitting rooms was the very first color TV (all figures outlined in 3 colors) I had ever seen!
My grandfather and mother respected the past. They carefully preserved the history of the home. But they lived in the present and were fascinated by the future. Granddad, used to driving horses as a boy, drove a Cadallic (with lots of innovative stuff that did not work well, like power windows). With fast stops and starts, when he was in his eighties, he drove like he was 17. We did not enjoy riding with him.
In one of the wings on the back of the house (it faced Library Place, which is now a sidewalk) the well was located inside the home just off the kitchen. I thought this was unique.
Click the link below to immerse yourself in some of the history of this residence and the last Beers family member to live in it.
My parents home had a well that was accessible from the basement. :-)
ReplyDeleteOshi Shikigami Way to go! The business of having to hike outside to check on or use a well is for the birds.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this a lot. Had some issues with images not loading but have finally seen them all. You have a great memory for, and documentation of your childhood and community! Excellent and thorough.
ReplyDeleteAnn Kennedy Thanks! I'm sorry the images gave you some problems. Please let me know if there is some improvement I can make which might help.
ReplyDeleteJeff Diver I think it’s my slow WiFi more than anything. Blog photos tend to load slower. Once done, yours are always clear and readable and I appreciate that, especially the letters and such.
ReplyDeleteAnn Kennedy Thanks for letting me know! The last thing I want to do is put technical obstacles in front of people who are interested in my posts!
ReplyDeleteJeff Diver You may already do this, but if not, try and see your blog on a desktop, vs mobile device or tablet. I was very surprised to learn how different each one looked. Sometimes the text didn’t fit correctly so words were chopped in half or ran over other sentences. Strange stuff. I see you blog on an iPad and it looks perfect.
ReplyDeleteAnn Kennedy I must confess that I have been so preoccupied with posting new material and moving stuff off the G+ platform that I haven't been paying much attention to the mobile vs. desktop interface lately. Blogger assured me that Google was going to make things right for mobile display and I have been taking their word for it. (I actually post from an HP laptop, which must be disguising itself as an iPad, contributing its share to "fake news" on the internet!) ;-)
ReplyDelete