Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Memories

  1. mem·o·ry   something remembered from the past; a recollection
It's hard to watch the old house that Bruce and his sisters grew up in, slowly deteriorate but it's also a  hard decision to tear it down since no one will ever live in it again. It was the house with a neat, white picket fence and filled with memories.


With the flowers that Mama took such pride in.


Where father and son showed off their abundant catch.


Where mother and son have heart to heart talks.


Where naps were required after a large meal, Bruce with his head under the pillow, Big Foof and John R. in the recliners.


Where holidays were celebrated, if I remember right, Jean sent this bouquet of roses for Valentine's Day. Since it was cooler out on the porch, they left the flowers out there and would go to visit them every so often!


15 years have passed since Leo died and the house sits empty, Carol wanted the kitchen cabinets for her craft room and Bruce has replaced some windows at the MN cabin with windows out of the house. One big thing left in the house was the pool table and we finally found a home for it in WI, Bruce's cousin, Dennis' son, Brad wanted it.

Yesterday, Tuesday, Dennis and Brad made the 5 hour drive, arriving in time for a country dinner of beef roast with potatoes and gravy, carrots, lime salad and almost fresh rolls warmed in the oven. Then it was off to the house to take apart the pool table with the directions Dennis printed out, 'How to Take Apart a Pool Table in 10 Easy Steps.' 

With the help of two DeWalt drills it went surprisingly well. 


With the bumpers removed, it shows the original color of the felt. Brad made the good decision to have the table re-felted, years of neglect, an invasion of Asian Lady Beetles, and few stupid birds who somehow got in the room and pooped all over the table, made it pretty tacky.


The dogs love an outing, especially if it means exploring the house and they charge upstairs to check out the empty rooms where childrens voices used to echo.


And back down....first Murphy....


....then Mollie.


The decision is being made to sacrifice the felt....


....and under the felt is the precious and extremely heavy slate sections....


.....that are carefully carried out to the pickup and nestled between layers of foam rubber to cushion the ride back to WI.


They were down to the skeleton!


And, after some careful measuring, they decided it could travel un-assembled, standing over the slate sections and securely tied down to the bed of the pickup.


The trio, back at our house, stopping long enough to get a soda for the road, and they were off with the precious cargo.


It was bittersweet memories of pool tournaments on school snow days along with cooking over the fireplace in the pool room and hot chocolate. But now Brad will make his own memories with the pool table and family and friends.

Bruce, too, was off, to the field, discing bean stubble in the first step toward planting season.


Since I had the camera, I'd always wanted to take these pictures, like mother.....


.....like daughter. The little frizzle pullet that was hatched last fall, now she is laying a teeny, tiny egg and it's so cute!!


It was a beautiful day, sweatshirt weather so the dogs and I went to the pond to check out the bees and the beavers, both of which are alive and well but that is another story for another day.

I'll keep you posted.

6 comments:

  1. wow this has made my eyes leak like crazy..... its how I wish to remember my home. The picket fence. The 'bed of roses' that my dad made for my mom...the picture of the house standing proud, brightly painted white. The hallway upstairs, where I can still see my kids sitting on their butts coming down the steps...(there were so many!). Bittersweet, indeed. I hope Brad got the pool table light to go with the pool table too? Thanks for the memory trip back to how I remember it always in my head.....

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    1. Janet called dibs on the light, she said they are planning on getting their own pool table so now the ball is in their court, so to speak!

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  2. This was very sweet...i was fine til i saw the stairway photo, then i couldnt hold back the sobs. Oh, bittersweet, that's for sure. I find myself averting my eyes when we go past the house now.. missing everybody, all the good times we had there. I'm so glad the pool table will have more life. Enjoy it, Brad. It's seen so much love, I'm sure it will give some back to you!

    We're having an early winter storm here in WI.the kind of day we would be having pool tournaments when i lived there, and probably hot dogs over the fireplace! Oh, my...

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    1. So glad we had Chief's photo albums, that is where I went, I so wanted a good picture of the house and there it was! Time changes but we will always have our memories.

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  3. Awesome blog Julie!! That's how I feel when I go back to the farm and go across the garden patch to Grandpa & Grandma's house - still standing but no one wants to take it down! Best it looked in the past 40 years was when Mike & I painted the porch and added flowers so we could get married on the east porch!! Gotta love the memories of sitting out there with G & G in their old glider...

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  4. well I'm with my sisters as I'm wiping my eyes. what a beautiful entry, Julie. Again, you nailed it with the pictures and those words. I too wondered if Brad took the light!! Glad Janet can use it, it'll be nice seeing it in her basement and remembering the 'sunroom' and all those crazy games of pool with the Reko's, Birch's, Mama and Bruce, and all the cousins. Oh and Foofie smacking the ball into some smart ass little cousin straight into her fingers, kind of a revenge for me...I forget, did Bruce take that eight ball trophy that Dad made??? Yes, we loved those school days when we got snowed in. Hot dogs over the fire, hot cocoa, and those pool balls hitting each other. Dad's music playing in the background, he in his special chair staring into the fire late into the night. We were so incredibly lucky that Chief made that room. It was a hit with everyone, for sure. I'm so glad that Brad got the table!! I hated seeing it there, just rotting. Hopefully they got it back in one piece and with new felting, it'll have many more years of fun for the families that gather around it. You had one of the prettiest pictures of the house that I'd seen, I loved it - and Mama's moss roses!! I wish there was a way I could print out this whole entry, pictures and words. It's truly memorable Julie and thank you so much for making me cry - in a good, good way!!!

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