A Petite Update
I am sad.
Why am I sad?
Because Bo left today.
Sad.
So sad.
I asked Bo to stay longer but he said something REALLY nonsensical: “But…but…I have to get back to my life.”
Huh? WHAT does that even mean? What could possibly be more important than running all over Emporia looking at fabulous old houses, making astonishing discoveries at the Cross House, and having scintillating conversations over lunch and dinner????????
Right????????
So, I am sad.
I am also overloaded with information. So much has happened since Thursday that it is going to take me a while to process all this, and hopefully figure out how to convey all this here.
My mind is reeling.
Oh, and I had an extraordinary, amazing, exciting, and FUN four days.
I am also utterly exhausted.
So, thank you to Bo…and Jill and Young Brian and EJ and Don and Lesley and Eric and Lacie and Doug!!!!!!!!
In my last post I alluded to two discoveries made by Bo the very first night. I had not intended to be, ah, cruelly elusive but I was suffering from extreme exhaustion and simply had no brain cells available to properly detail everything.
And I still don’t!
So this…petite…post will, I hope, suffice until my recovery is at hand.
Pray for me.
The architect of the Cross House was Charles Squires. Squires lived just around the corner at 613 Exchange. The house was designed and built by Squires in, I think, 1894. Later, Squires converted the house to a two family.
Note the triple columns. Squires later removed these. Sigh.
WHAT though does this have to do with Bo?
Well, Young Brian and his girlfriend, Bailey, rented the upper, front unit at 613. I thought Bo would enjoy seeing this. Bo did. Then Brian asked, innocently: “Wanna see the basement?”
None of us had any idea that this question would prove so astonishing.
I mean, golly.
While in the dark, low-ceilinged, and cobweb-infused basement, much shrieking suddenly ensued when not one, not two, but THREE original exterior columns were discovered being used as structural supports for droopy floors! ZOUNDS!
AND, we also discovered some intact stamped-metal flowers atop the columns! ZOUNDS!
Our excitement was SO great that it — and I know the following will be hard to believe — caused a, ah, tear in the time/space continuum and Bo vanished into another dimension! I know! Amazingly, my camera captured the moment just before Bo vanished!
Brian and I stood, speechless, as Bo just vanished into thin air. Twenty minutes went by before Bo re-appeared, apparently oblivious to having just stepped through time & space. Brian & I, thoughtful and sensitive men we are, decided not to update Bo as to his otherworldly adventure. Let’s just leave it alone.
Later in the day, Bo and I removed the mantel in the parlor of the Cross House to expose a sample of 1894 wallpaper previously discovered. Then I went upstairs for awhile. When I returned Bo said: “I found something. Maybe it’s nothing. But maybe its really something.”
My heart seized up. “What? What? WHAT?”
Bo showed me the back of the mantel. Secured by two small nails was a folded-up piece of paper.
Ahhhhh….wow!
Was this a message left by somebody in 1894?
An invoice for the mantel identifying the maker?
A map to a secret hoard of gold hidden in the house?
I was convinced as to the latter.
Carefully, I pulled out the two nails, and Bo slowly unfolded the ancient paper…
…unfolding! My heart began racing!
Unfolded a bit more! WHAT was hidden inside the folds!? WHAT information would be revealed after 123 years? HOW much gold would I unearth in five minutes? I was sure my heart would seize up!
Oh……….shit. Nothing. Friggin’ nothing! NOTHING! Just a long strip of NOTHING!
Now, a day later, I am pretty sure that the long strip of paper DID reveal the answer to a secret hoard of gold hidden in the house. But Bo, obviously altered during his stint through the tear in the time/space continuum, had managed to hide this information from my eyes and the camera. And, as I write these words, I am convinced that Bo ran off with fabulous riches.
I really hate tears in the time/space continuum.
After THAT adventure, Bo and I, late yesterday, went upstairs to the hexagon bedroom. In a comedic effort worthy of being recorded for prosperity we somehow managed to detach a MASSIVE radiator and then we somehow managed to move the terrifyingly heavy hernia-inducing radiator, all so we could ascertain the BIG question: DID any 1894 paper remain behind the radiator?
After much ado, we found that a simple stripe was the earliest layer. Oh. Oh. And, we had no idea if this oh layer was 1894 or later.
Well, after an afternoon involving tears in the time/space continuum and hoards of gold being most certainly stolen from me, the striped paper, while normally thrilling, was kinda anti-climatic by comparison.
And now, if you will forgive me, I must repeat these dastardly words: More later.
NOTE: It will be worth the wait. Really. You will be gobsmacked.
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An exhausting and exhilarating 4 days held by all! Rest up my dear. You have a lot more ‘splainin to do!
Can’t wait! So exciting about the found columns!
Oh my dear Ross! You have such an exciting way to describe finding a shim. I had forgotten about this method of leveling uneven items. My dad used to do this with paper, although his favorite method was a matchbook. I have no doubt that you have found many others, not knowing what they were. May you ever be delighted about your home!
I really did hope some secret message would be revealed by the folded paper – and alas, had I found a stash of gold in the space-time continuum, I certainly would have stayed at least another day (to look for treasure maps behind the other mantels).
We did have a great time, and the Cross house continued to confound and delight in new and unexpected ways – but never disappoint.
Many thanks to Ross, and to his cadre of old-house friends and stewards in the neighborhood and beyond. I was welcomed graciously not just into a number of interesting and beautiful old homes, but into closets, attics, basements, vaults, bathrooms and shoe boxes of old photos.
You are all heroes in your efforts to love and preserve your great old houses and neighborhoods.
I use four, six inch, tripod casters when I temporarily move a radiator. I use a 2×4 and block to lever one end up, slide the casters under two feet, and do the other side. This won’t move them down stairs, nor let one move it over anything but smooth flat surfaces, but it beats lifting. They are available at the big box hardware store.