April 8, 2011

• Character traits

  Dictionary.com defines chutzpah as unmitigated effrontery or impudence, gall, audacity or nerve.  If you were to ask my relations they would agree that it is a good adjective to apply to me.  The first time that I ever heard the word my grandmother was using it on me.  I believe I was in the library across the street from her apartment and I strode up to a woman who was reaching for a book that I wanted to borrow and had the nerve to inform her that she had plenty and I wanted that particular volume.  She surrendered the book to me out of sheer shock I think. 

  This week my chutzpah took a different turn.  Since my father was diagnosed with cancer I have occasionally driven up the road where the house that I grew up in is located.  Since it is on a dead end (right at the dead end as a matter of fact) I cannot exactly drive by it.  I actually have to turn around in the driveway when I get there so I am sure that the owners, after a few times of my doing that, got the feeling that this person wasn't just randomly turning around in their driveway.  Yesterday the homeowner stepped out and asked me if he could help me.  I rolled down the window and explained that I was just looking at the house and that I had grown up there.  He invited me in to look at the place but explained that he was sure plenty of things were different since I had lived there.

  

  He told me that he and his wife were the fourth owners since my parents had sold it. They had bought it as a result of the previous owners defaulting on their mortgage.  When they took possession the place had been literally trashed.  (I saw the pictures!)  He has been living there for 3 years now and has been slowly recovering the place and though it was difficult to reconcile the changes with my memories of my childhood home, he was doing a nice job. 

  

  My only real curiosity about the place was the existence of a table that my dad had built to fit in the kitchen.  It was a triangle with two of the corners flattened.  I remember distinctly the night that dad had put the formica on the top of that table.  I also remember many meals when my legs got tired of not being able to reach the floor and so I rested them on the cross piece that supported the legs of the table.  The table is still there and in beautiful condition.  The current owner had refinished the bottom and restored it to it's former glory trying to match the original stain.

  I was also astonished when he asked me if I wanted to see what they had done to the two basements of the house.  I looked at him in confusion saying that there was only one basement under that house and the cistern under the kitchen but that we had never been able to excavate into it because the walls were too thick.  He took me down and showed me that the cistern was indeed opened up for use and he had a nice exercise room under the kitchen with access from the back laundry room which has since been completely insulated and opened to the kitchen.

  After driving away I felt thankful that this nice gentleman had allowed me to see my family home once more and also that the changes to it have helped me to let go of it and it is now just another house in my mind.

  • 10:56 am
  • 6 Comments