I have shared this photo before; it’s one of my favourites from the old family albums: It shows my paternal grandparents as newly-weds, at the well on the property where they built their house in 1930.
That house (which would have been in front of them here, but probably did not exist yet, when the photo was taken) remained in our family for over 80 years, until the autumn of 2014. (Those of you who followed my blogs between 2009-2014 will remember it.) My dad grew up there. My grandparents still lived there in my childhood. After my grandmother died, we kept it as summer house. When my parents retired in the early 1990s, they had the house refurbished and extended, and moved in permanently, to live there the rest of their lives (or nearly). My brother and I kept the place for a few years more after dad died, because there was such a lot of stuff to sort out (and some of it rightly belonging in museums and archives, as our grandfather was a journalist with special interest in local history, and dad wrote books about Swedish railway history). But in 2014, we were at last ready to sell.
Do I miss the place? Not in the sense that I’d have wanted to keep it longer. My memories of it belong to the past; and it's up to the young couple who bought it to make their own. The house itself may well survive us all! – who knows...
Linking to Sepia Saturday 469
20 comments:
Oh Dawn! I know the feeling. Our old homestead was sold after my brother died--and I have mixed feelings about it. Our claim to fame was that Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) used to visit there with his uncle as a boy and carved his initials into the old cellar door.
I hope the new family makes their own sweet memories and make the home something that your family will be proud of when you pass by. xo Diana
Nice photo of your grandparents. I hope that the couple who purchased the house will continue to fill the home with love.
I bet they have to pay for water now.
This is a heart wrenching image. It's how things should be. Not how they are. Imagine a recent immigrant doing anything but queue for a house and the money to heat it.
I remember the house and your posts about it, but don't remember seeing this photo before. I love it...
Diana, the place looks different already, because all my life the garden felt very secluded as it was surrounded by high hedges - which over the years had grown way TOO high, so have now all been taken down (in cooperation with neighbours). In that respect the landscape now looks more like it did back when this old photo was taken. My parents loved the privacy of the garden and I'm kind of glad they never had to see that changed... As for myself, I've only been back a couple of times for a quick peek (it's not along the main road). Feels a bit strange but I also feel it's "none of my business" any more! :)
Thanks Liberty Belle; so do I.
Sandra, I think I posted about it just after we sold the house, because I also printed out a copy of this photo to give to the new owners in connection with signing the final paperwork and handing over the keys.
Adrian, the property has been on municipal water since way back. In my childhood, there was still also a water pump in the yard though. I remember it because when we had been to the sandy beach down by the lake in the summer, we washed our feet at the pump when we got back!
As for recent immigrants, I imagine most of them have the same dreams as the rest of us, which usually does not involve living off charity.
Btw I think it's worth remembering that 150-100 years ago, millions of people emigrated from Europe to the US because our own countries couldn't feed them. From Sweden, 1,5 million emigrated in the period ca 1850-1920. Around 20% of them later returned, when conditions were improving here. Among the emigrants around the turn of century ~1900 were two of my p. grandmother's elder half-siblings (they both later returned); and also someone from my other grandmother's family.
They were so stylish and beautiful. Such a gem of a photo. I remember the house well!
That is a lovely photograph and does seem to elicit their hopes for the future.
A wonderful photo that is a perfect match for our theme this week. (except for the lack of frowns :-) Their choice of standing behind the well instead of in front or to one side is curious. Almost as if there was some symbolism intended. I'm glad you mentioned the Swedish emigrants returning. I think we forget that immigration is not always permanent and people often had compelling reasons to return to their homelands.
Thanks Ginny. It's one of my favourites! :)
Thanks Kathy, I think so too.
Thanks Mike. I suspect that digging the well must have been the first thing they did (or had someone do) on the property, and they probably felt that it symbolised the start of their new life together. Come to think of it, they probably weren't even married yet when this photo was taken. My grandfather bought the land in March 1930, the house was probably built over summer, and they got married in September.
As for migration, I think we need to remind ourselves that through history people have moved about a lot - probably including our own ancestors, if we go back far enough!
Love the picture of your grandparents standing by the well. You have to be sure you have one of those before you can continue with anything else. And yes, here's hoping the new owners are happy in the house and treat it right. I Google-searched the home I grew up in, recently, and was astonished and saddened to find the current owners had done away with the lawn in front and put in some weedy-looking 'water friendly' bushy things. But the worst was our lovely (stucco) home originally painted a light tan with white trim, showing up in a bright orangey redwood color with dark green trim. Oh ugh!
Well I guess each owner feels they want to make some changes in order to make a place their own. "Our" house had already gone through several changes over the years from when it was first built to when we sold it in 2014. And now it looks even bigger with a large veranda added!
Oddly, although I have lived in only 5 houses since I was born (plus 'The Cottage' in New Zealand), I've never grown attached to them until the house I live in now. It's good to be reminded of posts and photos you have posted before. We've been blog-friends for so long that so much has disappeared into the mists of time.
I lived in many houses, always considering wherever I was could be made into "home." But the well digging does say that they were about to start life on that land. I've become more related to the land as I've grown older. Thanks for sharing here.
Graham, I often have to search my own blogs to establish whether I have already blogged about some things in the past or not. And I feel the same about photos on friends' blogs too - I quite like seeing their favourites repeated sometimes as well!
Thanks for visiting, Barbara. All my adult life I've lived in rented flats and I have considered those "home" as well - except perhaps for the first one which was a very small student flat where I lived less than a year.
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