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3:01 p.m. | 2002-12-28
Surprise Visitor. I was busy cleaning this morning. It seems like a running theme in this diary, however, it�s really just maintenance cleaning. I have mostly wooden antique furniture, and outside of one small area of carpeting, the rest of my floors are linoleum, tile or wood. Add to that many windy days, little gaps in the walls, and Rambo gardeners with massive leaf blowers, and you get one dusty house. Oh, and lets not forget the birds with all their feathers and assorted dander. Viola! A house that needs regular dusting, sweeping and cleaning lest it be taken over by feathery dust-bunny colonies. Anyway, back to the story. I was upstairs cleaning when I heard a knock at the door. I answered the door to find an older man (OM) and a younger woman (YW) on my stoop. This is that. (YW:) Sorry to bother you� (OM:) I grew up in this house and I�ve never come back here before. Do you know who built this house? Do you know who I am? (This was all said in one breath; he just blurted it all out.) (CI:) Yes. You�re Older Man Junior and your father built this house, although you built on additions at a later time. (OM:) YES! How did you know that?! (He looked at me in complete awe and respect.) (CI:) I researched it. (OM:) Wow! I can�t believe you knew that. I�ve never come back here before and� Does it still have this and that? I have to interject and say that I grew up in many different homes in many different states and whenever I�ve been in those states, I�ve always driven by and I�ve always REALLY wanted to go inside and see them once again but either no one was home or I didn�t have enough guts to go up to the door. I could see all of this in his face. The Younger Woman is his daughter and I could see her interest too. I also got the feeling that she had kind of convinced her father to drive by his childhood home and, when they did, I think she talked him into coming up to the door. Initially, he looked very nervous but was soon overcome by memories. (CI:) Yes, it still has this and that. Would you like to come in? I�m cleaning at the moment but you�re welcome to come inside. (OM & YW:) Oh yes! Thank you. When they came inside, OM instantly started checking everything out. I could tell he was matching childhood impressions with what he was seeing. He immediately began telling YM and myself how things were laid out before (things have been changed around some) and telling us little tidbits, etc. Not being one to miss an opportunity to have a first-hand account of history, I asked him all sorts of questions. Then YM asked if they could see the backyard. Again, OM immediately started telling us about that. Then he started asking me if I knew certain people. When I kept saying no, he realized the age difference and started naming the sons of those people. Then I started responding affirmatively albeit I know them by name, not personally. Now I know who grew up in the houses next door too! I did learn what parts were original and which were added on. I also learned that his father built the house in 1923 rather than in the 1930�s. And, just as I thought, all the roses were planted many years ago but I found out they were actually planted by his father who was very fond of roses. I also found out that his mother eventually sold the house for $9,800 � he didn�t mention what year that was but that would have been a long time ago! As history is one of my passions, I found this all very fascinating and wonderful. I let him wander around until he was ready to go. I got the feeling that this visit was something that he really needed to do. He was really pleased that it�s been so well taken care of over the years. [Just for the record, since I was cleaning, I hadn�t showered or combed my hair and I was wearing these old funky 80�s sweats, slippers and no bra. But, this was just too important to them for me to be concerned about my bizarre appearance.] There�s not a lot of irony in this little story, but don�t worry I saved it for the end. See, Older Man is quite well known, at least in MyTown and maybe MyState. He is a very rich, land developer. A huge land developer. In fact, when Younger Sister came to visit me here, I mentioned that Older Man grew up in my home. She was trying to remember why his name sounded familiar when she realized he owns the building she works in. Well, he probably owns at least half of my MyTown. Buildings and streets and such are named after him, etc. Some, no many, would call him a ruthless, greedy land developer. He�s in the papers all the time and it usually pertains to some lawsuit. In fact his picture�s in the paper frequently too, but I didn�t recognize him from that. I recognized him because he said he grew up in my home. However, I met a whole different Older Man. I met someone, who later in life, was looking for some of his family roots. I sensed a need in him to come back to what�s important in life� to remember who he was/is. Really, as corny as this sounds, it was like the Ghost of Christmas Past got a hold of him or something. And, the real irony? I found out that I sleep in his childhood bedroom.
your thoughts?
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