If you could see what I see

Seems like it was just yestahdee I walked through my house, though it is very apparent I must have been sleepin’ some-where ‘cause I certainly would not have set up my house this-a-way…oh my stars, who put avocado green and pumpkin orange in my kitchen ?! …where did my nice solid wooden ice chest go to, I wonner….and all those doors on the walls ! …and how is a body supposed to sit on them spindly little chairs? Couldn’t have been very big folk living here….

There are people walking thru my house, one of whom has a pin on his jacket that gives his name and somethin’ that looks like ‘reel-ter’…I’m not knowing what that is, but he is talking up my house somethin’ fierce – “…..hand-turned wooden moldings throughout the house…..” and somethin’ that sounds suspishusly like “..shabby sheeke..”, what-ever that might be, though it do seem to be takin’ the young-folk’s attention. I ‘member when my man made those door-frames, he did like to work with his wood, said it felt alive in his hands. Me, I am thinkin’ he had imbibed a little too heavy that day…..and the man did like his lickor, tho’ he tried to hide it from me. We used ta’ have a shed out back with an outhouse attached to the side. My man hid his wiskey bottles there so I wouldn’t find them, but I knew where they were, and if I was thinkin’ he was imbibin’ a little too much I took steps to fix that…..I tried puttin’ sand in the bottle a coupla’ times, filled ‘em with water, put bugs and werms in one, ‘til I saw the bottle already had a werm…the smell of that one near made my eyes burn…when that didna’ work I took ta’ dumpin’ the bottles so they’d be empty….when I’d had enuff of his drinkin’, I brought the bottle in and smashed it on his head – yup, my man decided it was safer to stay sober after that one. I still chuckle over that one…made my man clean up my floor and scrub the lickor off’en it afterwards….he ne’re took another drop after that.

But where was I …? Ah, yes, visitin’ my house…strange that I can go thru the kitchen wall and be in the pantry…a bit dusty it is, and cobwebs, and …yuck, mouse droppin’s beneat’ the shelf…some-body hasna’ been here in a good bit if the critters have taken residence. The top shelf still has my ole butter churn and my most favoritest skillet made of black iron that my man gifted me with one year…that pan was some hevvee but it cooked so good…..as I go back thru the wall my kitchen, my good stove is gone. When my man and me first lived there we have a big wood stove that had a well in the side of it for heating water…the boys knew they hadta’ scrub their faces and hands ‘afore they came to dinner and lack of hot water was not an exkusse ! So, the folks are still walkin’ thru my house and talkin’ with the reel-ter about the size of the rooms and age of the strukcher, and how much land came with it, and how much could they talk the owner to come down on price….Land sakes alive…who’d a’ thunk my house would genn-ah-rate such talk? They seem nice folk, a bit long in the tooth perhaps as I dinna’ think there are chillun’ livin’ with ‘em….The man is talkin’ ‘bout settin’ up a work-shop – seems he does things with wood like my man useta’, and the woman is sayin’ somethin’ ‘bout the big room in front up-stairs that has a big winder in it now, somethin’ to the effect of “..good light for my quiltin’…” so perhaps wont be too bad. I followed the folks down the hallway. What useta’ be the babee’s room now has what the reel-ter called an “..n-clozed tub an’ show’r…..porcelin’ base…original claw-foot…” – well, at least the ones who put it there knew qualitee. The lady is sayin’ that it smelled like babee powder…’course it did, I was very liberal with that wit’ my babee’s, and I blew some off the winder when they came in the room….

{..fast-forward several months…}

I hadta’ walk thru my house again…time to say good-bye to it I am supposin’…the man and woman who I had seen wit’ the reel-ter are in the house now. They still have lots of boxes to open it seems, but the room up-stairs with the big winder with all the light is in use all ready….there are new shelves with fabrics – yes many fabrics of so many colors…and the woman is hummin’ as she cuts and stitches and cuts some more…..there is a big wicker rocker in the room now too…with a quilt hangin’ over the back…and an orange tabby-cat in the chair lookin’ at me. His eyes are bright and clear and he sees me. He knows I am here and mean ‘im no harm…it is a good room, a happy place – the woman has seen to that…. I can be happy knowin’ my house is in good hands now…..time for me to be movin’ on I am supposin’….