I wandered down a street I had not explored since starting Willits Daily Photo, and found an unexpected sight. The strip of white trim-board over the front steps says members of the same family have been in residence there since 1916. Modern American life is usually full of grown children moving away to jobs in other towns, and even other states. Somehow this family has maintained a steady economic foothold for at least one offspring in each generation over the last century. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you may even see somebody on the porch.
16 comments:
3 generations of my family were born in the same block - which isn't bad, but I have wrecked the family history big time!!!!
How nice you are to remember me from PDP! I'm still quite the lurker:) Ahhh the white picket fence is dreamy! 1916!!!! Holy Endurance Batman!
Love that pooch. He knows or she knows this is a good place to live. It is beautiful too.
Abraham Lincoln
—Brookville, Ohio
We have friends who bought the wife's family home when her parents decided to downsize. Her sister bought a house across the street, too. I think it's such a great thing to do.
What a terrific house! I think my family would be inspired to stay too! Terrific shot, great post to accompany it, and an interesting thought for the day.
Wonderful!
We have neighbors with a similar story. THe woman, her husband and her two school age kids live in the house that she grew up in. ANd her father grew up in the house. And her grandfather BUILT the house. Cool, huh?
There was something on NPR just today about a sharp decrease in people's connectivity with community - you don't see this continuity so often.
My family's been in eastern PA since they stepped off of Ellis Island at the turn of the 20th c. But I've been gathering no moss. Somedays I think a bit of moss would be a nice accoutrement.
I like the flowers inside the heart cut out on the gate
Cute little fella. Love your post and the dandy picket fence!
Something of an honor to have a home in the family that long. Cute pup on the porch.
definitely an anomaly for this day and age. I think I'd hang a sign up on my front porch too!
I like who I discovered when I enlarged the photo.
The fence is entrancing. I want one with the little heart in the gate, too.
My family has lived in the area since the 1800's and one house in the Ukiah area was built then by an ancestor and is a historical house now. I have fantasies of buying it but... Ukiah is way too hot for me to live there.
Indeed, Knoxville Girl: a bit of moss would be a nice accoutrement. I don't have much of it myself.
Good eyes to spot this Elaine. Nice story. Nice house. Nice pooch - what breed do you reckon?
Jules - You are the crowning glory of your family history!
Marie - But of course! I wonder if they will celebrate somehow eight years from now.
Abraham - The pooch seemed to feel quite secure, without the slightest bark its vantage point. I almost didn't see it.
Chris - It really is a type of wealth to have the overlapping continuity of memories and stories at a place.
Kelly - Isn't it sweet? It's not one of the flashy Victorians at all. Just a simple workingman's family home, with a fairly small footprint.
Laurie - Roots like that are the exception, not the rule. I think some folks would like to buy that kind of connection in a new town, but it can only be lived.
KG - I have it both ways, in a sense. My great-grandparents immigrated to Mendocino county in 1904, and my mother lives on property that she grew up with, and that we always visited throughout my life. But I've only resided here year-round since 1997.
Squirrel - I liked how that lined up too! I was just the right height at just the right distance.
Raf and Dusty Lens - Thanks! I would love a pup like that if I could.
Lily - It is almost startling to see someone refrain from anonymity these days. I think it is our mobility that keeps us so much to our selves. When I was a kid, people used to have their names on their mailboxes. I rarely see that anymore.
Kym - Well, you are even more old school than I thought! But you're right, Ukiah is as hot as Sacramento - blazing! I wish the air-conditioning worked in my truck...
Julie - I think it's one of the larger sized chihuahuas, but it might be a mix. I appreciated its relaxed but alert nature.
Thank you, everyone!
Oh I like that! It would be nice for someone to write a book about that family — they must have some very interesting stories to tell.
Hilda - Around here, some of the older families have had someone in the family write one themselves, and then self-publish. The historical society has printed some as well.
I actually heard of an incident where someone who had lived in Willits twenty years dismissed someone's assertion of opinion as unmerited because that person had only been here fifteen years! Ridiculous!
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