I’ve got two of the three elements this week:
photo of the doorway of a particular house number; what’s missing, though, is
the element of a relatively high body mass index...
...here I am on the front porch of 11 Fletcher Street Portland , Maine
My family moved from Boston
to Portland Fletcher Street
I could see the water from my bedroom window;
I remember lying in bed, listening to my radio and watching fishing boats and
the occasional tanker navigate the harbor. Later on, my parents gave me a window
sill shelf-feeder, and I filled it with birdseed every morning before school...and
watched birds at my window – inches away from me – sparrows and pigeons,
mostly, but it was pretty magical!
I have no idea what I’m holding in my hands –
I’ve blown this photo up, magnified it, used every technical alteration Picasa
can offer, but I still can’t figure it out. But whatever it is, I’m clearly pleased
about it; a small smile...
I’ve got my school clothes on: my wool skirt,
little sweater top; the ribbons on my braids may or may not match the color of
my underwear (I apparently picked ribbons that coordinated not with my outer
clothing, but with my inner clothing
– a habit that baffled my mother for a very long time!). I’ve got my sturdy
brown leather shoes and striped socks...I still like striped socks, by the way.
Like so many Federals (and Greek Revivals), the
house on Fletcher Street had a heavy frame-and-panel Christian door, sometimes
called a Cross & Bible door here in New England – the framing on the top
four panels in the shape of a cross, on the lower two the spine of an open book.
That gorgeous brass door knocker looks
ridiculously high on this door; it’s positioned for one of Gulliver’s
Brobdingnagians, while the mail slot is clearly for a Lilliputian. That knocker
has followed my family around for four generations; I am of the fifth to own
it...
...so if you’re ever in Maine
To see what other Sepians have found, visit http://www.sepiasaturday.blogspot.com
What fun sharing some of your backstory. I wonder, since you're clearly all dressed for school, that possibly you're holding something for Show and Tell at school? My first thought just looking at the picture, before reading, was that you were holding a small gift for someone?
ReplyDeleteI think I'm too old for Show and Tell, Karen...but the gift idea is intriguing...I'll have to think about that!
DeleteAny luck yet on what's in your hand? I am just now catching up with all the posts and replies that arrived since I first posted! I hope your week is going good!
DeleteIt looks like you caught one of your pigeons, Deb!
ReplyDeleteIt does look kind of birdy, doesn't it, Kat? The color's too light for a pigeon, though; did we have rubber duckies back then?
DeleteYou do write the most interesting posts. I heard yesterday of one child who wanted to take his Grandma for Show and Tell to show off her bumps and bruises (I forget the cause !)
ReplyDeleteOh, that's funny...can you imagine Grandma in Share Circle, lifting her skirts, say, or pushing up the sleeve of her sweater?
DeleteIt's a wonderful doorway, by far the finest I have seen on my trip through the posts this morning. And it is a fine photo as well. What you are holding is a piece of paper on which is written the answer to the thing I can't see in my Sepia Saturday picture this week!
ReplyDeleteThere's gotta be a way to enhance that sign! I love that so many Sepians are suggesting various solutions to that puzzle, Alan. Perhaps your sign really tells me what I'm holding here on the steps!
ReplyDeleteYou have painted such an evocative picture of growing up in your home in Portland, with some lovely memories.
ReplyDeletePortland was -- and still is -- a wonderful city: vibrant, creative. Funny that I should spend time there now, about 60 years after that photo was snapped!
DeleteI love this post!! Thanks for the history.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jackie...underneath it all, I think Sepians are ALL history buffs!
DeleteYour history shines as brightly as the door which is impressive indeed.
ReplyDeleteOh, Bob -- how nice. Thank you.
DeleteI don't think you are too old for show and tell.
ReplyDeleteAnd I do think that mail slot is so low it could almost be a cat door (a very skinny cat though!)
Oh, Jackie! Do you know about Flat Stanley? A fictional kid who gets flattened when his bulletin board falls on him -- he has many adventures; his parents mail him to various places!
DeleteNo, never heard of Flat Stanley - I'm going to go google him now though. Sounds like a fun story!
DeleteIf the knocker could talk! The birds at your window - of course that had to be magical. What a lovely memory!
ReplyDeleteHazel
I remember the pigeons most clearly, Hazel...they cooed and talked to me...I was enchanted!
DeleteA charming photograph - with its ‘little smile’ and all the details about your dress code too. It’s a wonderful door and those steps are leading us somewhere.
ReplyDeleteNot quite a "Mona Lisa smile," but close to it!
DeleteThat was an education I would have never imagined, the reasoning for the shape of that door. I've always loved doors like this and never really stopped to think about the design.
ReplyDeleteAnd you've reminded me of the tuna can I nailed to a porch railing at my apartment in Los Angeles. I was on the top floor and with that tuna can outside my window I had the joys of watching the birds come to feed as I sat working at my desk.
That's great -- the tuna can! There's something soothing about watching birds, isn't there? Christian doors have other names, too -- I think it depends upon where you grow up....
DeleteTaking the door knocker with you is interesting, as is the name of the door design. Surprised you can't remember what you were holding but know that your socks would have matched your underwear though!
ReplyDeleteSorry, I meant your ribbons not your socks of course.
DeleteBoy, it could be that BOTH my socks and ribbons were matched with the underwear...it took my mother a long time to figure that one out...
DeleteAlthough I know only the "Internet Deb," the "Sepia Saturday Deb," it doesn't surprise me at all that THAT Deb matched her ribbons and underwear.
ReplyDeleteI think you're holding a rubber duck.
I'm laughing, Wendy...and I'm settling on the rubber duck theory, too!
ReplyDeleteAlan's comment made me laugh :)
ReplyDeleteDo you mean that when your family moved from house to house they took the door knocker with them? That's amazing. You should write a blog post about that.
Yup, they did! It's been handed down...seems a little "over the top" to me, but it's a family tradition. I don't have it on my door (it's a steel door), but I've got it!
ReplyDelete