118 Henry Street

Carole joined DeShawn and I in Chester to bring in the new year. I’m mostly an old bear about staying up too late, especially during the colder months. But, with some gentle persuasion from Carole, I actually stayed awake until midnight on December 31; the first time in a couple of decades. There’s a lot of hope in our non-nuclear family that 2004 will be a very good year all around. If the year’s start was any indication, that hope is well founded.

The restoration theme for the holidays immediately past was definitely "electrical", set in a couple of old house attics. Working on Carole’s electrical issues over Christmas got all my tools and focus directed towards some of the unfinished electrical work needing to be done upstairs at 118 Henry Street. Last August, we had some electricians re-wire the upstairs, effectively removing the need for the old knob and tube circuits on the second floor.

As I mentioned after they were done, I was truly ambivalent about their work. They provided me with a practicum with which could be applied all the book education that I’d acquired about electrical work. The less positive aspect of this practicum was that almost all of their work had to be redone (by yours truly) to meet building code. As of August, I had cleaned up approximately 2/3′s of the work they had done. The remaining part was the lighting circuits for the bedrooms and bathroom that were fed from the attic.

In fairness to them, the attic wiring was not a safety hazard like the crossed circuit they left me with. But, with wires running willy-nilly, diagonally across the ceiling joists with no anchoring or protection, it was very disorganized and difficult to do any other work in the attic without stepping on wires. The finishing touch was that they forgot to wire one outlet when running the outlet circuit and, at the very end of their stay, had to wire it to the lighting circuit.

So, New Year’s day and January 2nd was spent in the attic organizing and mediating the tangled mess. About 6 hours on the 1st and 4 hours on the 2nd got the outlet issue resolved and most of the spiderweb of number 12 wire taken care of. I learned quite a bit working in Carole’s house and made good progress overall. Even put in a porcelain light fixture for future journeys to the attic!

Saturday, DeShawn and I spent most of the day outside. The weather was gorgeous with temps in the 70′s. The Carolina’s almost always have a January thaw week when the cold is broken for a bit with warm air from the Gulf of Mexico. This year, it came very early and well timed for the holidays. I experienced this phenomenon during my very first winter in North Carolina. In the last week of January, 1989, I was bouldering in shorts and a tee-shirt, perspiring in the 78 degree sun.

While DeShawn rode his new bike, dug holes in the yard, chased the cat and generally enjoyed the spring atmosphere, I blew and raked the last of the leaves from the yard. This was the third round of leaf maintenance so far this winter. The big pin oak (that’s willow oak to you folks north of the Mason-Dixon line) nearest the house finally gave up the last of its foliage. Total amount of leaves this year was relatively high, probably because of the abundant rainfall in 2003. Based on past years, the bets are on my having moved about 5000 gallons of leaves, mostly pin oak.

Hope you all had a good holiday and wish you a needle pegged to the right on the Progess-o-meter for 2004!

We were supposed to go to Middendorf SC today to celebrate the holiday with Carole’s maternal side of the family. The first time I met Carole, she told me that her people sprung from the dirt at Middendorf. Turn off SC 1 at the remnants of an old store to reach the farmland that the Catoe’s have occupied and worked since well before the Civil War. Most of the living Catoes of Jean’s, Carole’s mom, generation were born within 200 yards of the little brick church at the front of the acreage. The cemetery between the railroad tracks and the church is populated by Catoe’s from several past generations. There was a time when Carole’s father said he wouldn’t be put to rest in that cemetary with all them Catoes, but I think he’s mellowed and relented that position the last few years.

A gray, windy November day like today set the stage for my first trip to Middendorf. Carole and I had been dating just over a year. She was anxious in all senses of the word to show me off to the extended family. We spent most of the time, except eating, outside, in the side yard of Aunt Delores’ and Uncle Stanley’s (past on) house, directly adjacent to the cemetery. Many of the old men related by marriage, not blood, to the Catoes, loitered out there with us, away from the heat and activity inside the house. Including Duecey, Carole’s dad. My father died on a cold, cloudy November day like that first trip to Middendorf. I guess that why my memory of that visit is dominated by the thoughts of Duecey silently crying as he and Jean walked thru the graves in the cemetery.

DeShawn is sick. That’s why we didn’t go today. For the second time in as many weeks, I had to pick him from school early and take him to the doctor. As of right now, we don’t even have 24 hours of antibiotic in him, so he’s still feeling clammy feverish. Carole’s making Thanksgiving for us here. We’re still functionally stove-less, she’s using the grill I refurb’ed for our Hillarity get-together. Stuffed chicken breast, raw broccoli and carrots, rice and dressing will be followed up with “worms and dirt”, gummy worms in crushed oreos. We’re to use the white-washed table I rescued and some antique high back chairs Carole bought for dining room furnishings in, what DeShawn calls, the “green room”.

Our little Thanksgiving, 2003

Speaking of, the soiree we held in conjuction with Chester’s Hillarity Festival was quite satisfactory. With minimal preparation, Carole, DeShawn, and I entertained a dozen or so invitees. Mostly from our pool of friends and family in Columbia, and my son, Ben, from Charlotte, everybody got a chance or two to visit the festival going on a couple of blocks from the house. The weather was prefect autumn with clear sunny skies, about 68 degrees mid afternoon. We setup a table by putting together a 100 year old door from Carole’s house and a couple of metal saw horses next to the refurb’d grill. I spent every bit of the daylight outside except for the nickel tours of 118 Henry Street. Since most of our contact with friends and family occurs in Charlotte and Columbia, DeShawn was particularly impressed that folks were coming to visit us in Chester.

Ben and Liz, my twins, visiting during the Hillarity Festival

This past weekend, contact with friends and family was in Columbia. Last week was DeShawn’s 4th birthday, so we went to Chuckee Cheese with him on Saturday. Of course, he had a big time, though, my suspicion is that his current illness may have originated there. The little party in Columbia closed a week of small celebrations for him. Prior Saturday, his mommy gave him some presents. Tuesday, his class at school celebrated. Tuesday evening, we had supper with his Uncle Ben, who gave him several presents. Wednesday, his actual birthday, he and I went to the movies.

While in Columbia, I spent some time with Duecey and Jean. Because of helping Carole with her plays, I’d been neglectful in regard to visiting them. We had some high quality time just sitting in their living room, talking. Duecey gave me some old window sashes he’d collected. These windows have become the latest side project at 118 Henry street. I’m going to do some basic repairs and replace the panes with mirror glass. With the sashes turned upside down, the sash lifts will act like coat hooks. Hopefully, the rebirthed windows will find appropriate homes in an entry hall or mudroom somewhere.