an unusual lesson

One of my passions is studying architecture. I have been known to be somewhat of a Nancy Drew of old homes as I drive through old neighborhoods. I was thrilled when I discovered these two almost identical homes in the same neighborhood one day and just had to snap some photos.

This day all started as a quest to find old homes with what is known as a

coffin door or casket door.

My fascination comes from my genes---my Great Grandfather was a real life grave digger. He even is buried in the same grave yard where he buried so many others!

My great Grandfather

Let me pull the pieces of the puzzle together for you. In doing genealogy research about my great grandfather I learned about grave digging and that turned into learning about funerals or more specifically wakes held in the home -in the parlour. Without modern medicine and technology there were many unfortunate (sometimes early) deaths that our ancestor's families had to deal with.

Before there were funeral parlours (funeral homes) there was a time of visitation-they were called wakes- held in the home of the deceased. Window drapes would be drawn closed and mourning wreaths were hung on the doors. Family members could pay their respects during a short enough time before nature made things unpleasant to the nose (before embalming became the norm) and long enough to make sure they would not wake... thus making sure that sicknesses that were mistaken as death would not cause a person to be buried alive. Really and truly.

Some people were so afraid of mistakenly being buried alive they even planned to have complicated rope contraptions rigged up going from inside the buried coffin through a pipe for air to above ground with a bell at the end. Really and truly.

Anyway....back to the coffin door. When you see a very old home with a small narrow side door off a side parlour area, it is probably a coffin door. Sometimes now they are bricked or sided over and there is no longer a working door. Sometimes there are vines covering the door that has long been unused. It is just exactly what it sounds like....it was a door to allow a coffin to be easily brought in and out of the house to allow a family wake in the parlour. This eliminated having to possibly maneuver through the rest of the house and make tight turns in narrow halls, around staircases or around other furniture. This side small parlour room was usually only used when the minister or priest came to call and for wakes.

I think it is probably unusual to find two houses with this feature still intact within blocks of one another like I found. Keep your eyes peeled as you travel and you may find one too!

These houses will be referred to as house A and house B.

House A has a coffin door on the right with the darker stone cornice above it. You can also see the ghost of a removed front porch= see the dark stripe at the base of the second story windows?


Here is another angle of House A showing the coffin door and the ghost porch line.


This is House B located just a few short blocks away. This one has the porch still intact and you can see the coffin door ( back in the shadows of the porch) in the same position as on House A!!

Here is House B showing the side opposite of the coffin door.




And then House A from a similar angle.


Pretty cool , huh?!

Snow

The forecast: SNOW. Really and truly...the weatherman has called for possibly a few stray snow flakes to fall from the Ohio sky today. Our ground is still to warm to allow any to stick but Oh, How I Do Love Snow Flakes!



Silly to put a snowflake post right after a post about Halloween decorating? Heck--why should my blog not follow the trend here in town of the retail establishments? Everywhere I go the past few weeks they have been pushing the Halloween stuff aside, and front and center instead is Winter/Christmas.

Outside my window the leaves have not yet even finished changing to their Autumn colors on the tree branches. I admit freely that I get excited about seeing all the Winter/Christmas stuff early; however, I wonder if each year it will be pushed earlier still and eventually we will go directly from back-to-school store offerings to Santa and such. No Autumn anywhere. It will be Christmas in July for real and not just a tease.

I have been making the paper scraps fly with my special cutting snowflakes only scissors. I am known around the neighborhood and at school as "the snowflake lady". I hang them on my windows every year around the last week in November and keep them up until Valentine's Day. We very often have snow in Ohio until late March and sometimes (on rare occasions) into the end of April. I love snow- and snow fits somewhere in there with my ideal temperature range. I am happiest with the weather when it is between about 20-70 degrees. I find I am usually in the minority when unofficial temperature preference polls are taken. LOL

These are some of the snowflakes I have listed in my shop so far. You get 35 snowflakes and some freebies too- for what I hope is viewed as a value price-and I ship without cost to you to anywhere in the US and pretty cheap to all the rest of you.

Some have sold already!! Do not wait to get your own shovel full. I will continue to cut and list. so keep checking back for more listings. To find all of them easily I have them under the category of Paper Snowflakes (surprise!) in my shop's table of contents as they are often scattered through out the shop and harder to find if you browse by listing date.

My secret confession is that I long to have all my Winter merchandise front and center after back-to-school too...only because I love to make snowflakes so much and I long to share them with you.

My paper snowflakes snow comes with a detailed guarantee:

1. never need to be shoveled resulting in shortness of breath or backache
2. never cause a slip and fall accident nor a fender bender accident

3. never cause you to be late for work or any other destination by needing to be scraped off your car's windshield

4. no matter how many you accumulate, it will never result in a snowed in situation causing you to plan ahead and empty off the grocery store shelves of milk, bread and canned soup

5. no matter how many you accumulate, it will never result in an electrical outage from downed power lines

6. they are not messy as they do not melt into grey slush

7. you do not have to skillfully catch one on a black mitten to see the one of a kind hexagon detail

8. sorry kids on this one...no snow days off school

I find that one tiny piece of rolled gift wrapping tape (any brand will do) on the back of a flake is all that you need for hanging on a window. It will peel off pretty easily when you wish to take them down to save for next year. In my own personal collection, I have been using some of the same flakes on my windows for over 16 years now! I used to keep them stored in the pages of a dictionary but I have gone beyond the storage capabilities of any book. I now utilize a vintage tin red and white bread box.

Below are photos from past years showing just some of my flakes at my house. I have cut about 100 more to also be listed very soon in the shop. Stop in often to see them!

old books

I like old books and decorating with them is fun to do for any time of year. Take a tour with me of just one area of my Halloween decorating that includes old books.

Can you believe someone intended to throw away this great old dictionary?! I rescued it!
It looks like an ancient spell book or something when teamed with a skull and some creepy crawly critters beside a twisted candle stick.


You surely can't go wrong with a stack of black and orange old books as a platform
if a smaller skull and other goodies are perched on them!

If you ever are lucky enough to come across some old black books with orange titles on the spine- they make perfect props for any Halloween vignette. The more tattered , the better!!!

Next time you stumble across some old books, maybe you will look at them with fresh eyes as you consider the possibilities in everyday and holiday decorating. After all, it doesn't matter if the story inside is a good one or not and many times they are the right price=FREE.

my kind of blog

I ask myself often, "Just what kind of blog do I have anyway?"

I started my blog as a way to unleash some thoughts and give my far away family and friends somewhere to go to listen to my thoughts. I also share photos. Some current. Some from before.
I whine sometimes. I rant sometimes. I place my opinions on the table sometimes.

Most of all, I guess I like the way a blog lets you create a reality that seems any way you present it. I can seem happy, even if it's a day when I'm not. My house can pretend to be clean and magazine layout ready, even when it probably never will be. Is that dishonest? I don't mean for it to be. Maybe I am like The Great Oz hiding behind the curtain. I don't know for sure.

One thing I do know, is that since I have started this site, I have had many kinds of feelings each time I sit to write in front of this new technology -- a technology I don't ever hope to understand. I feel lucky to have this outlet. I am thrilled with making new friends. I smile at all the wonderful comments people leave for me. I am endlessly impressed with all the talented people out there in blogland.

There are people that read this site and know me. There are people that feel they have gotten to know me. There are people I know and long to see again. There are people I long to meet but will never have the chance.
Some people show art, some are talented writers, some have had great sadness enter their lives, some are successful business people...

I just don't know what kind of blog I have. Maybe it doesn't require a category or definition.

I think I would describe my blog as being like my Grandma's always yummy homemade cookies she gave me as a child. I called them her "Clean out the cupboard cookies". She would use some basic recipe and then make them unique by throwing into the mix what ever she happened to have on hand. Sometimes it was chocolate chips, sometimes raisins or nuts or candied fruit. It didn't matter because it was all presented to me with the same sincere enthusiasm. Something to enjoy; to create a lasting memory.

I hope my blog is like that.

This text was republished from it's original date of August 2007 on my blog.

PS- you can click on these images and enlarge them

"Fantasy Family"

This picture is from this site
--A wonderful wealth of possible family discoveries for genealogists!

1. I don't know these people, I'll bet they were kind and wonderful.
2. I make it all up, no ill will is intended.

Meet Helen Fay and Geraldine. They have know each other since 2nd grade in Miss Peabody's class. They have spent their lives since the famous spelling bee of '03 being competitors with one another. They feel driven to have to do the same things but always trying to out-do each other!! First it was the fancy bows on their shirtwaists then the extravagant hats. What's next for these two girls...

Tattoos??!!

memory flash back- candy

I have to take a road trip with the kids to this place!!! I have been thinking of all my old favorite candies from my younger years. Back when the commercial for a certain brand of tooth paste said, "Look Mom! No cavities!!" I must have done a lot of brushing because I did not have rotten teeth but I sure ate my share [and maybe the share of 2 or 3 other kids] of candy back in the late 60s and early 70s. Back when Candy was King....at least in my opinion!

I have been pondering the fact that when we (my neighborhood friends and I) were little, we loved politically incorrect candy! We ate candy cigarettes and chewed bubble gum cigars and none of us became teenage smokers. I have never been a smoker, for that matter. My friends and I survived our Baby Boomer upbringing in spite of all the [now] incorrect things we endured...

But, back to the candy... I just bought some Black Jack candies the other day and let me tell you, they give off a great licorice scent each time I walk by the candy dish. It takes me back to the days of the penny candy counter. You can read a previous post I wrote about my memories of that by clicking here.

A and I watched the movie The Right Stuff a month or so ago because she is a big, big space fan! They talked a lot about Beeman's chewing gum in that movie. That's another candy/gum that gives you good memories just from the scent. By the way, I recommend you watch that movie (for the first time or again) for some flash back moments too.

I will let you know what we come up with at this retro candy store when we make the trip. A trip down memory lane for me, to be sure!!

What were your favorite candy picks when your age was still in the single digits?

memory flash back- Spirograph

What could be more fun than hours of art possibilities with a couple pieces of plastic, some short pins and a colored ink pen or two or three? Not much!!

I loved my Spirograph that my Mom bought at a garage sale when I was little. Don't know what ever happened to it...so I bought one for my kids at a garage sale too!


If you happen to find one, by all means --BUY IT for yourself and discover/rediscover how much fun it is. You can apply the designs to grown up art endeavors.

You can use your own kids as an excuse for buying it...or the neighbor's paperboy's aunt's mother's grandson!! Just get one!!

"Fantasy Family"

This picture is from this site

--A wonderful wealth of possible family discoveries for genealogists!

1. I don't know these people, I'll bet they were kind and wonderful.
2. I make it all up, no ill will is intended.

Martha had been thinking lately of getting a part time job to keep her busy in retirement. She just didn't know what she could do. She thought of all her previous work experience and turned some thoughts over in her head.
One day she went to see the seashore with her friend Eva. That eventually lead to Martha reminiscing days gone by...... she sat down in the sand to show Eva the pose she used to do when she was a swim suit model just 50 something short years ago. After sitting down in the sand and being unable to get back up, she and Eva decided it wasn't the best idea of the day.

black and white

Who says you can't use milk glass at Halloween time?

I use it all year round.

This is my window sill in the kitchen.

I used all my ribbed design milk glass items here.

All black accessories dance among the shiny glass.

Things like sparkly witches and sparkly crows,

lots of spiders, mice and rats and cats too, !!

When the sun sets and the goblins come out

the effect is a different one.The black night outside the window

makes a perfect backdrop.
Halloween decor does not have to ALL be just orange and pumpkins!

memory flash back- the captain

1960's were defined by many TV memories for me...one of the dearest was watching Captain Kangaroo. I sure wish they would come out with a DVD set of these shows. I would use grocery budget money to buy it. ---Here's the part where I go into a dream state with a cartoon-type bubble above my head---"Sorry family, it looks like ketchup sandwiches again tonight! But remember, you get to watch one of my favorite childhood shows anytime you wish in exchange for a slight sacrifice of another cold red sandwich." OK so it is a crazy exaggeration. I am sometimes known for those. But seriously, back to the memory of the Captain...


I absolutely LOVED the regular show segments including Grandfather Clock and Mr. Moose and Bunny Rabbit and the Dancing Bear. As I got wiser, I realized that they were not real but indeed were puppets or people in costume. No matter. I was willing to try to keep alive the smoke and mirror illusion for my own sake and enjoyment. Kind of like the year after you find out there is no Santa or Easter Bunny, yet you pretend there is still so the fun can (hopefully) continue.

Mr. Green Jeans was also a trusty sidekick. As a child, the routines of the show were predictable and comforting. Always some jokes, always some cartoons, always some learning- though that was disguised as pure fun. The character of the Town Clown was one that I did not fully enjoy until years later when the memory proved to be sweet after all.

Even the commercialization was tied in to the appeal of the show. With Kellogg's as a sponsor and some clever age appropriate images, our mornings were filled with cereal excitement as we waited with anticipation for the Kellogg's train to come around the bend. Those were the days of really super neat-o prizes right inside the cereal box. I would dig to the bottom of a brand new box to find the buried treasure of a prize and ultimately leave the box with bulging sides that do not allow it to close properly. "Oh well, I guess a second bowl is in order to make the box close better!!" I remember my Mom usually buying the off-brands of cereal more often than the brand names (IE. Kellogg's) unless she had a coupon and the store was running a weekly special. Have you come across a vintage cereal coupon? They were for 8 cents off or some ridiculous amount. I guess name brand cereal didn't cost enough to require selling a kidney like it does now (I also often buy off-brand cereal!).

As an aside ~even though it is center, haha~ I have stumbled across a wonderful place on the net that is all about vintage advertising...loads of print ads and stories to go along. There is so much to see; I am taking it in one little visit at a time. Some of the stuff from years gone by is truly politically incorrect and causes you to ponder, "What were we thinking as a society?" You may have noticed if you visit my Etsy at all, that I am a fan of all things advertising and general ephemera too. I have recently found some vintage packaging which strikes my fancy.

Ok, Ok...back to the subject matter of this post...

I do not remember this specific episode, but it looks strangely a lot like my home today. We seem to be Bunny Central with all of E's long eared pets.

Perhaps my favorite memories of watching Captain Kangaroo are the many books he shared with us. I had the sense that he was only reading them to me, though obviously he was reading to all the other thousands of kids sitting in front of the console TV, probably so close to the screen they would ruin their eyes (Mom always said!!)... besides, he had to hold a captive audience through the end of the show to sell a lot of that cereal that required an 8 cents off coupon!!!

These are just some of the books I now own that he read to me and some more from that era that fill me with delight and that warm fuzzy feeling. See if there are any that you count among your favorite memory flash backs.