The House Song
That's the name of a melancholy track on the Peter Paul and Mary "1700" album. It's playing in the background now. Can you hear it?
"This house goes on sale every Wednesday morning.
and taken off the market in the afternoon.
You can buy a piece of it of you want to,
It's been good to me if it's been good for you.
Take the grand look now, the fire is burning.
Is that your reflection on the wall?
I can show you this room and some others,
If you came to see the house at all.
Careful up the stairs, a few are missing.
I haven't had the time to make repairs.
First step is the hardest one to master,
The last one, I'm not really sure is there.
This room here once had childish laughter,
And I come back to hear it, now and again.
I can't say that I'm certain what you're after--
But in this room, a part of you will remain.
Second floor, the lady sleeps in waiting,
Past the lantern, tip toe in its glance.
In the room, the soft brown arms of shadows
This room, the hardest one to pass."
There is more, but I couldn't quite catch the words off the speaker, but that kind of gives you the idea. All through the winter I played that album, hearing that song and thinking of Kathy's mom Anne and her house for sale. We've already had a tour in a previous post, but like that house that PPM sing about, we can't quite get that simple bungalow out of our system. Kathy has all sorts of dreams about it, usually involving entering the house quite illegally, or just being inside when the new owners are there. In the first dreams, they didn't catch her, but lately they have confronted her, wondering what she is doing there. If I were her analyst, I'd find this progression very interesting. Wonder what will happen in the next installment.
We occasionally see the nice neighbor on the one side up at church and she fills us in on how the new people are doing. They are preparing to put up a fence--something we always wanted to do. They have cut down the pine trees that Kathy's father had planted many years ago. It's OK, though, since their little boy is autistic and they need to be able to keep him safe in the backyard--hence the fence. The boy has an older sister who plays well with another little eight year old boy next door. The husband has already had it out with the weird guy next door, going so far as to order the odd character to go back in the house and not even think of coming out again! All due to the goofy guy's terrible language, hollering in the backyard where the kids can hear. Good for him.
Kathy drives by the house at least twice a day, even now. I've stopped telling her to give it up. After all, whenever I'm in New Jersey, I go past the old family homestead just to see what's happened to it. The key is probably in her dreams. Let's see what happens when they finally play out.
posted by Career Guy @ 8:48 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
I often miss my old home. Too often, we think it's the house that we love so much, but it's the dreams we lived inside those walls that we've already taken with us.
I think I miss Nana Anna's house more than I miss my own little house in Wheaton. I have so many happy memories from 2918 - Christmas plays, summer days, chilly mornings getting ready for school, playing in the sandbox in the patio.
It's a good little house and I hope the new people are happy there. I know Nana's spirit will always be close to that house and will watch over that family the same way she watched over us. Maybe, even now, crazy next-door can hear her calling him a "dirty dog".
Nice use of links, John...
:-)
I understand this house-love. It's nice that people just moved and seem to want to take care of the house. We still own my gramma's house and rent it. When I went in a couple weeks ago, I broke down crying. The sad thing is that if we sell it, someone will surely knock it down.
Given the recent Supreme Court ruling, it's probably just as likely the local government will condemn it and sell it to a private developer to be turned into a parking lot for the mall.
I often dream of my grandmother's house when I was young. I also dream of one of the houses we used to live in a long time ago.
I heard that when you dream of houses you are actually dreaming of better times you had.
When I used to go to my grandmothers house in the county it was a sweeter time. No worries, just freedom and fun.
In the old house I dream about, I was the closest to God than I have ever been in my entire life. I think that is why I dream of that house so often. The house itself was a run down old shack and is condemned now but Jesus was with me so much in that house.
Kathy is feeling that strangers have invaded her pleasant times and it is disturbing her. Hence the dreams about them catching her there.
I'm not a dream interpreting person or anything like that - just my thoughts on it.
Tink, I'm not sure what the dreams mean, but I think it may have something to do with coming to terms with the changes in her life. I once counseled a woman who was bothered by a dream, and it took weeks to begin to tease out the meaning, but I was laid off from the counseling job before we could finish our work. We'll see how Kathy progresses.
Jeff-Thanks, but I couldn't have done it without you.
Shane, if you drive by the house now you can see that the new people have completed putting up a big fence, so mom's days of spying will be that much more frustrating.
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