Some really good writing here (and lovely images). SAHM and the kids are down for naps - I visit Sweet Juniper for my quiet time. Thank you!
That was so beautiful. It is no accident that in symbolic terms, water is emotion.
Just lovely.
From someone who worked in the water world for almost a decade, this post had many meanings. Thank you for writing it.
I know how this feels, spending time. My grandfather was a farmer, a vintner, and a wine judge; I stand before him in my T-shirts and jeans, not knowing the difference between a zinfandel and a cabernet. He tells me stories of how during the Depression, his family lived on meals balanced weekly instead of daily, depending on what they could get. It's fascinating. I hope my own children have a chance to know him. All we can do is prime the pump, listen and learn.
(And on the subject of onesies--a recent baby shower included plain white ones to decorate, and it made me think of your L'enfant sauvage, which every parent should have.)
As someone who did not have the opportunity to know her grandparents, I envy your discussions with your grandfather. And he is lucky to have a grandson who cares about his stories.
the closest I've seen to onesies for adults was when my college roommate found red footie pajamas for adults. He looked like a skinny teletubby, but he wore them all winter long.
my life is lived in the same uniform, that feels woefully inadequate in the presence of my grandmother. nana will not speak of the past even with prompted, even when visiting where see was reared. in the middle of conversations, out of nowhere, "I am still afraid to sleep sometimes, because I have nightmares about them throwing dirt onto Mommy's coffin. You know after she died of TB. Daddy made us go into the room and watch her die. Do you want tomatoes with dinner?" a fear of a ten year old girl, still haunting my 88 year old nana. it is all a matter of being able to listen when they are ready to speak.
Now I'm picturing your grandfather as Faye Dunaway's husband in Chinatown (but unmurdred, of course!).
I think it's great that you still have a grandparent alive. I barely knew mine and they passed 15-20 years ago. I'm now just hoping that my parents and inlaws will around long enough to have real relationships with my boys.
(p.s. Buy the house, already!)
Another beautiful post. I love to read your blogs because i can so often see your words like a film unrolling in front of me. It's fascinating.
My nan is 94. She drinks whisky every day and we all think she's pickled. She has outlived all her immediate family, 2 husbands and my dad. She could talk for England, and does. Cherish.
x
I think it's amazing that you have the opportunity to purchase something that belonged to your family so long ago! And to have your grandfather tell you about it. We have a cottage in the upper peninsula that my grandfather built in the 1940's, and I know we will never let go of that. Wonderful story, as always!
I wanna read this post again, because it's so vivid and relaxing.
I want to meet your grandfather, cause he sounds like a fascinating person. Now and then, my wife reminds me how I once went on and on about Chicago water and the history of the lake and river, to her tremendous boredom.
I'd love to turn the tables and sit back listening to your grandfather, so I could have more ammo to throw at my wife for my own amusement. "Now, take Detroit water, there are a lot of parallels..."
I'm currently doing the same. My grandmother, my grandfather's love for over 70 years, died last week. So I'm back in TN from SF to spend some time with my granddad.
While he's grieving, obviously, I think her death made him realize he might not have much time left either (he's 87 and falls often and hard). So he and I started a project of him dictating his entire life history onto a recorder, and I'm going to transcribe it all and write it up in book form for the family. He's had some interesting times--from losing the $1000 he saved up from his paper route when the stock market crashed to being held as a POW during WWII.
I just spent the morning with my 87 year old grandpa, driving through his old neighborhood. "That's where I use to pick up the streetcar to LA. That's where I got into a gang fight with your Uncle Johnny. That's where I got off the bus from the War." He is in the past all the time these days. But what a great past it was. Thanks for helping me appreciate it more.
It's wonderful that you are able to have this time with your grandfather. I'm probably only a few years older than you, but I didn't really know my grandparents. On my mom's side they were gone before I was born, and on my dad's side his mom (his dad died when he was 12) spoke little English (she came over from Sicily in the early 20th century). My parents are gong to be 80 next year, so I feel about their history the way you feel about your grandfather.
Funny, about the water - my dad worked for the transit authority in Manhattan for decades, so he has a similar knowledge of man-made tunnels and labyrinths and lines, and I love hearing about them.
Our elderly are truly a treasure. They are, however, often an overlooked treasure. Record those conversations- they are your children's legacy.
lovely story. I've often wondered why some old roads bend the way they do. Each old landscape has its own story, and each story is different depending on who's telling it. Thank you for sharing this.
Water is life. I loved your writing on this.
Seriously, your writing just keeps getting better.
I'm still hoping you'll buy this place, if only for the stories that will come out of it.
Brilliant writing as usual, helps remind me of those “buttons” each person has that if pressed just the right way, will provoke them to reveal more about themselves that would otherwise remain undiscovered.
I love that you are thinking about the home.
Parts of our family who don't appreciate it almost sold our summer cottage up in Norther Ontario. Thankfully us crazy Texans decided to scrape our pennies and keep it in the family. We drive up every year now. It's just like when I was a kid, only better because it's ours and it has 3 generations of history and many more to come.
There is a definite beauty in that type of a connection with a location. I've nothing but excitement and anticipation for your family.
This is only somewhat related to the post. I visited a friend in the Gold Coast, Australia, two weeks ago and while showing me around and dropping little bits of local history, he told me about this photographer. He found a bunch of photos of his young daughter in front of iconic areas of the Gold Coast. When she was an adult, he posed the same photos of the girl in the same spot, and placed them side-by-side to show the change in the community. 1) You need to do this with Juniper. Even already, I bet you have a library of images of her in front of places in Detroit that no longer exist. 2) I bet you could get some excellent homestead images in this vein. Just thought of you when I heard the story. Yes you, a stranger. Not at all creepy!
I agree with the others -- I lay back on a Li-Lo and floated through that post.
My husband is a hydrologist with the Department of Sustainability and Environment here in Melbourne (Australia), so it's all familiar territory.
And as for onesies? I reckon monks have it all worked out -- shapeless robes, shaved heads, no worries.
You are so lucky to have this relationship with your grandfather. My grandparents passed way before I was old and wise enough to appreciate them.
As someone whose salary gets paid by people who do their business on water, I have developed a greater appreciation for the proximity of the world's greatest cities to seas and rivers. There's some statistic we quote in my business, that like 90% of the U.S. population lives within an hour's drive of the coast (I think this includes the Great Lakes). It's a powerful thing.
One of the things I loved about being an Episcopalian is the baptism ceremony, and specifically the Thanksgiving over the Water, where the priest says 'We thank you, Almighty God, for the gift of water. Over it the Holy Spirit moved in the beginning of creation. Through it you led the children of Israel out of their bondage in Egypt into the land of promise.' Water has such a long and storied history of significance and symbolism; it just lends itself to power and poetry.
How very cool that your grandfather is an expert in water (and a wealth of practical knowledge about the many challenges of buying your family homestead will mean).
Onesies for adults? Why, they do exist! Happy shopping
http://www.bodysuit.com/
mensbody...sbodysuit1.html
and cherish your grandfather. Time with loved ones is so valuable
I feel so blessed that both of my son's granddads are doing well; they're also both full of wonderful stories - the hard part is they live far away and Biscuit only sees them a few times a year. I wish he could grow up with both of them. I can only hope the fact that he doesn't see them as often might make them that much more memorable to him.
Delurking to say that I really enjoyed reading this post. And I've been enjoying the thread and photos on your family's old place. Am looking forward to seeing what happens with it all.
Gorgeous post. I find myself wondering how in the world you can continue to write so prolifically and beautifully with not one but TWO little ones under your wing these days.
However you do it, I'm glad that you do.
Me again. Just came across this poem that made me think of you guys and your family homestead:
http://tinyurl.com/5cza8l
Nice find Ksue, very clever poem.
Since everyone else already said it- I ditto it all- so cool!!!
And since there does not seem to be a way to comment about your last blog post- I want to say- that totally sucks!
Cool. Your grandfather sounds like a fascinating man and still with it, at almost 90.
Hope you have some more great stories lined up.
Lovely post, I think you have captured how the same place and the same time can be seen in so many ways by different sets of eyes. The only truth, we all have our own truths.
Buy the place, if it doesnt work at least you tried and not knowing will always be at the back of your mind.
Great post. Great picture. It's funny, I was just thinking of my own grandfather, who passed away a couple of years ago. 2 years ago yesterday to be exact. That picture spoke to me. It spoke of him, of a bygone time, of an era I struggled to understand when I would sit through countless stories. Thank you for bringing it a little closer to home.
I am really enjoying your blog. You write beautifully and as a Detroit native so many of your images and scenes are truly evocative of many of my own. I love your Eastern Market posts. I love your pictures of the barren cityscape. I love that you are living there, embracing what for many is an empty city full of problems and misery. Unless one understands Detroit, it's hard to know how vital it really is. I realize your need for some privacy but I'd love to know where you really live (within walking distance to Eastern Market!), where your wife works, where that country house is really located. In other words, I guess I wish we were real-life friends! I used to work with Detroit youth so many of your pictures depict their very neighborhoods, I think. My grandma lived in the city and my early memories are of a vital city neighborhood in Detroit. My mother grew up taking the bus to a bustling Woodward Avenue and meeting her girlfriends there. I live in Atlantic Beach, Florida now and so I visit your site for a mental and emotional trip home.
Have you been published in any Detroit periodicals? Hour Detroit? I try to read them whenever I come home. This is the first summer in nine years that we have NOT made the journey from Florida up to Detroit to see the family.
Keep up the good word.
jeannie
Your mention of an old hand pump brought back memories of me as a child priming my great grandparents' old hand pump out in their yard near Glen Allen, MS. My dad always tells stories, similar to those of his mother, that are filled with a rich disgust of that pump and all of the work that it took. ~Thanks.
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