Perpetually Historical

I have a friend in Roanoke, Virginia with a keen interest in history. I nicknamed her "perpetuallyhistorical." I, too, have a curiosity about times gone by. The Treehouse is situated in a landmark building which, even if one wasn't told, could be deduced by the marble staircase and banister woodwork. The surrounding neighborhood has some Bring Back Memories locations such as the Isle of Capri restaurant established 1955 when I was encountering Sarah Orne Jewett and The Country of Pointed Firs in high school. I'll wager I've been on the search for those firs ever since. I really do believe, "There is no poem as lovely as a tree." A short bus ride or subway to 34th Street brings me close to the Tick Tock Diner. It is inside the New Yorker hotel. This establishment predates the Empire State Building by one year, 1930. The breakfast menu features something unusual in the Big Apple--a choice of grits. The fabled Automat is gone but other places have held on. The daffodils at Rockefeller Center attest to the jubilant cycles of life. I can easily see Wordsworth writing,

"I wandered lonely as a cloud

that floats on high o'er vales and hills

and all at once I saw a crowd,

a host of golden daffodils."

Walgreen's has a sign stating its first store dates to 1901. My mother was fond of the 59 cent lunch special at Walgreen's in St. Pete at about the time the Isle of Capri welcomed its charter customers. I like the way the years interweave like the wedding rhyme, "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue." It's likely my passion for historic places began with my brother on his expeditions. That's what I called them but, really, they were just long walks behind our house in Jerusalem. I remember him saying, "Solomon walked here." I wasn't sure who Solomon was. I had a vague idea he had been the richest man in the world and the smartest but how could he be rich and smart at the same time? Why would he lay up treasures on Earth? Hadn't he heard about Jesus? My brother, ever patient, said Solomon lived long before Jesus which meant to me that it was smart to be rich back when. That still didn't make sense because I had been told the rich were discontent, ever striving, never satisfied. My brother wasn't prepared for my strong streak of logic and declared, "Solomon was an exception. Exceptional Solomon." Naturally, being six years old, I pestered the issue. "Why?" My brother diverted my attention by handing me a tiny square rock of such beauty, I have it to this day. A short silence ensued and then I asked, " Did Solomon have any of these?" Later, at home, my brother complained "She never stops. She has to know everything." My mother suggested I let my brother go on his walks without me. Thus began my own adventures and investigations. In Blowing Rock, North Carolina, there is a plaque, "In 1731 on this spot, nothing happened." Now that's a rare bit of history, don't you think? I wonder if whoever put up that plaque had a little sister with an inquisitive streak. From the tram to Roosevelt Island "Landmarks galore" can be seen, one of which used to be a smallpox hospital. I learned about this on Kaye Barley's blog when reading an entry by New York mystery writer, Linda Fairstein. It's Spring Break week at the Treehouse. My next post will come from the Shire. Till then..."

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..may the blessings of sacred spaces be yours...