Theater For Sale

Around here it’s not unusual to see an old farm house abandoned, dilapidated, waiting for one more good wind storm before it collapses in a pile of rubble. Driving by such properties I always think of all the life, all the events—the love, the conflict, the sibling play, the milestones—to which those old farm houses played host. An abandoned theater of the American family, now inhabited by ghosts.

I felt the same way when one of my nieces posted the listing for the sale of the beautiful house above. Far removed from where I live now and not anywhere near abandoned, not anywhere close to dilapidated, and yet, it too is a house filled with ghosts, both friendly and disturbing. I knew this house for something like twenty years although I never lived there. Family lived there and it was a home I visited often and even where, for a few years, I lived just around the corner.

I can’t look at this house without thinking of a million good times: of card parties and pool parties, of prime rib dinners and backyard picnics, of snowball fights and a tandem bike, of ice cold Cokes and cozy fires in the kitchen. But I also know there was another side to life in this house. It was life punctuated by the unpredictable cadence of alcoholism-- life distorted by expectations that could never be fully defined, wants and needs that could never be fully met, and, in spite of great love and great caring, a sense of loneliness, I think.

Like every house that’s ever been made and ever been occupied it has been a great theater of life. And, in spite of the often significant complexities of human life, it’s nice to see one survive so well as this fine specimen, a theater where the stage remains ready and richly equipped to host the next troupe. Better still, in spite of the fact a few of the acts may have had their problems, all in all it’s played host to quite a run of hits: Several dramas, a tragedy or two, but mostly, to a very long run of feel-good family performances. A proven performer. Now for sale, it comes highly recommended.

I should be so lucky to have my house so well remembered, three generations removed.