One of the things I adore is the exploration of old houses. There aren't as many of those around these days as there were when I was young, but my youth was spent exploring in places I very specifically was NOT supposed to enter. My summers, if you might recall, were spent in Aspen, Colorado, which at that time was still a sleepy old mining town just finding its feet and a new life with the arts during the summer and skiing in the winter. Throughout the town were old, abandoned miner's houses and shacks, because it's too high in altitude with weather too grim for too many months for camping out alongside the Roaring Fork river.
Quite a few miles south of Ashcroft and Aspen, closer to the border of Colorado and New Mexico, was the town of Animas. This mining shack still stands, paying homage to those who worked the mines. |
My parents rented, and then purchased, one of these old abandoned houses. It was actually pretty well kept up - inhabited regularly so patched and painted. It dated from the 19-teens, so it was an older house, although not as old as some. The walls were thick - almost a foot thick. That was for the purpose of insulation and structural integrity against the winter cold winds and the heavy snowfalls. There were windows present in each room, but wall dominated each exterior expanse. There was a front porch - a bit rickety so we rarely used it, and a back entry directly into the kitchen which was our normal way in and out. A side yard allowed for our construction of a more modern house a few years later when we split the lot in half.
I explored throughout the town and on many of the streets, abandoned houses were the norm. They were settled in their weathered wood, surrounded by waving grasses and weeds, and the music of the grasshoppers and squeaks of the mice sometimes sang along with the ever-present breeze. I always had to be careful - some of the flooring wasn't safe to walk on, and the houses were mostly pit foundations - holes dug for cold storage cellars, large boulders in the corners to hold up the housing structure, and quite the fall into darkness if the flooring gave way. Exploring the homes was exciting and I couldn't resist their siren's call.
Did you ever do something in your youth that you probably shouldn't have done? I'm sure we were all guilty of something in our past. If you're up to it, share with me. I'm going to put abandoned houses into this post, bundle up, and go out into the cold. We're getting a nice cold snap now and are getting our coldest temps of the season thus far. BRRRRR! Have a great Friday and I'll be back tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment