Grandfather Says: The Continuing Chronicles of Elaine, Part 47

The following was written by my late wife Elaine. She wrote a long book, a diary really, from which this is one passage:

In the early ’80’s, Dave drove his old white Scout truck to Saginaw, Michigan, when Grandpa Miller’s beautiful old house was being torn down  Dave salvaged what he could use and brought it back to Union, to preserve a part of Grandpa’s house, a place Dave loved to go to when he was growing up.

He and his siblings and cousins would slide down the long banister, and play hide-and-go-seek in the big old house which had hiding places everywhere, and Grandpa’s front door, with the cut-glass doorknob, is now our front door.  It’s noticeable, from its very low doorknob, that the door had to be cut off enough at the bottom to fit a modern-house door opening.  I love the sun’s reflected rainbows through the prism-cut doorknob onto walls in the big room and the stone wall archway in the hall.

One of our grandchildren was fascinated when for a few minutes the sun shone through each facet of the doorknob throwing tiny rainbows onto her foot and on the rug in front of her.  Bullseye stained glass windows were salvaged, and were incorporated nicely into Jonathan’s home, and so were most of the doors Jonathan used in his house.  The doors between his dining room and his poolroom used to be in Grandpa Miller’s side hall and living room. Dave gave these treasures to Jonathan in exchange for Jonathan putting a roof on our new pole barn, built mostly from wood salvaged from an old, obsolete loft-type barn that Dave pulled down.

To be continued…

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About the Author: RD Blakeslee is a nonagenarian in West Virginia who built his net worth by only investing in that which can be enjoyed during acquisition and throughout life, as opposed to papers in a drawer, like stocks and bonds. You can read more about him here.

Photos: Courtesy of the Blakeslee Family