Reminiscing

Today's entry is going to feature another Victorian house cutting.  It's a very special cutting to me as it triggers lots of memories from my youth!  Please join me at this time for a trip down memory lane.

Queen Anne Victorian

I grew up primarily in Wernersville, Pennsylvania, which is where I also currently make my home.  Wernersville is a rather small old town with a typical main street called Penn Avenue.  Along Penn Avenue are quite a few of these beautiful Queen Anne Victorians.  All are privately own, are in relatively good condition (some better than others), and are quite a feast for the eyes -- all except for one which was just demolished, quite sadly, earlier this year.  Incidentally, the one that was demolished was owned by my childhood piano teacher.  From what I'm told, it was one of those sad elderly couple situations where the wife died and the husband remained in the home, alone, living as a recluse, while the house literally fell down around him.  Heartbreaking indeed, in many ways...

Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you I have quite an unnatural love/obsession with old homes, particularly Victorians.  Maybe it's a reflection of my love of all things old or all things spooky.  Maybe it's a mutation from my childhood fascination with ghosts and haunted houses.  Or maybe I'm just an "old soul" and my ancestral memories whisper so strong to me that I mistake the old as something current.  Either way, I love it O-L-D!

One of Penn Avenue's Queen Annes used to be the local library when I was growing up.  Throughout my teens and into my early 20's, I had a volunteer job at this library and Oh what a glorious time that was!  It was a quiet library, as all libraries generally are, but beings this was such a small town there was not much action going on during my work nights.  So to entertain myself I spent the majority of my time getting lost in all the faintly lit rooms, perusing the dark wood bookshelves for anything that caught my eye, or fantasizing what it would be like having this place all to myself as my home.  After all books were checked in and returned to their rightful places on the shelves, I would retreat to a darkened window seat in one of the front rooms and lose myself in whatever story struck my fancy.

Our town's library is now located in a newer building and the Queen Anne is once again a private residence.  The home has been beautifully restored (for the most part) and I get to feast my eyes on it daily.  And every time I drive or walk by, I'm transported back to my days in that front room on the window seat, lost in my imagination, creating new worlds to explore...a habit I have yet to break.