Anne Langford
  • About
  • Life
  • Performance
  • Rituals
  • Recipes
  • Headlines
  • Books
  • Urban gadfly
  • Travel
  • Anne’s Circle
  • Contact

I lived here once

By Anne • October 26, 2016 • Life

It’s just another For Sale sign for a beautiful old house on a street tucked away from the flow. The inhabitants have moved on to new digs, but if you want a tour, I suggest you start in the back.

 As lots go, it’s a grand one, eh?
Yes, sorry about the overgrown shrubs, but the rose?  Did you see how it’s taller than the blue spruce? A transplant from my grandmother’s garden.  Okay, follow along here by the old porch. What’s that? You’ve not seen one like this before?

img_9098
Come over here and stand awhile. See how the autumn sunlight hits that spot just there? Root yourself a minute and hear the swing swoosh, the scuff of heels on the flagstone as we skipped around after Felix the cat who shouldn’t be out. Blame it on Sheba-the-dog-that-came-after the-five-kids-but-before-the-eleven-grandkids who thought they were the first to discover the park only pretending to be a garden.

img_2225

Little beds are still marked along the sides of the garden from the days the five of us were junior green thumbs. I put pansies in mine—each were ours to plant and water. Dad tended roses in one corner, alongside the tiger lilies as bold as any of the colours of Mom’s candle collection.

35-mom-tea-table

Sturdier plants survived the onslaught of hockey pucks when the snow was hard enough, or baseballs hit harder than girls should hit, or so the neighbourhood boys thought. Raspberry bushes skirted the sandbox on the hill at the back, the same mound, on that first Christmas when Mom and Dad invited us to come up from our downtown tiny apartment for breakfast (stay in your PJs and just come!), and it was snowing Disney snow so Peter and I ran out to nudge Kate’s toddler sled for her first toboggan ride down the gentle slope to the great lawn; the very lawn of epic badminton rounds and fairy tale theatricals, each goofier than the last. The kids on the street surely had no idea who or what they were watching as they lined up on the picnic table benches, underneath the giant maple tree.

4-sister-cats

Were there goblins in the shadows? I looked hard enough while crouching down, trying not to be spotted for long games of hide-and-go-seek that lasted until dusk and the call to come in, let’s hope it’s not’s liver for supper.

scan-8

Someday, I told myself, I’d be brave enough to hide under the porch where Dad kept all the firewood. One day I will hide in a different shadow, one my teenage boyfriend and I welcome. One day, my father will balance a sherry glass and a lesson about dating when I was invited to join him on the garden chairs and have a little chat after Mom caught me kissing my boyfriend in the park after school. The trees know my secrets. Can you hear them chuckling?

img_1945-2

The wind laughs too. Finally, a silent moment for a breeze to be heard after decades of happy noise; from baby cries (yes, Mom, we did so cry sometimes, no one could be happy all the time) to hurry up and jump, would ya? from the top rung of the jungle gym;

img_4899

or the shouting from the kitchen window to come in, come in, there’s a telephone call for you from Principal Darnley. Am I in trouble? No, Miss Langford, you won a prize! A prize for word tricks I could do better than baseball;

9-poetry-prize

from Toronto symphony soloists, the finest serenade yet, a surprise for another ageless birthday for Mom; or the splashing from water games and the smack of the croquet mallet for grandchildren tourney, or bashes under a pink and white tent. We wore giant polka-dotted bow ties for that bash, one we called La Belle Aurore, a party for Jane—or was it for Mom and Dad to celebrate the end of an era?— the last of five to graduate from high school, but not the last stomp in the garden. No, never, for the chairs remain for all the Father’s day barbecues and Mother’s Day picnics and school skit practice and group toasts and sung grace outside?—oh dear, won’t the neighbours hear us? Who cares, says Mom — spontaneous celebrations,

celebrate-13-boater-hat-kate-john

grilled cheese sandwiches & oatmeal cookies with date filling for lunch in the days we came home between morning and afternoons at John Ross Robertson School. Can I bring a friend home? Or two? Or a hundred? They’ll all fit here without a squeeze, but not inside the orange tent pitched right over there for storytelling and practice sleeps for sleepover camp. That’s just for us.

8-in-tent

Look at the stars!
Listen to the birdsong!
Look at the world-it’s all right here.

Turn around and take in the house behind you.
I know, I saw it. It winked at me too.

img_0330

See that window up there at the very top? A view for dreamers.

img_9056

What’s that?
You’ve forgotten how to dream?
No worries, it all begins here.

img_9074

Tweet
24
Shove a pie in his face*
Halloween rituals

Anne

Fangirl here. If you have a sweet tooth, I'm coming for you. Let's dish and dream together, shall we?

24 Comments

  • Reply Sarah Langford October 27, 2016 at 3:52 pm

    This was a wonderful home to grow up in and your words have brought back so many memories. I did hide under the porch once bravely with the spiders. I jumped in the leave piles, picked Lily of the Valley, toboganned the little hill, taught my daughters to ski down the same hill. There were endless garden parties under the oak and maple. Sad to say goodbye, but I know a new family will soon be looking out a window into this magical place. It snowed this morning and I think fondly of how beautiful 129 looked in the snow.

    • Reply Anne October 27, 2016 at 5:34 pm

      The snow! YES!!! and that Lily of the valley stench was so intense-I need more of it in my back yard to offset the dog poop!

  • Reply Lisa Simone October 27, 2016 at 4:49 pm

    Replant some of the garden in each siblings homes-in the grandchildrens apartment balconies…
    If the house is torn down.. Salvage some bricks but don’t make a wall.. Build a path in your garden. Make a door stopper.
    A house is a house but a family makes it a home.
    As your parents move into smaller quarters they know that what makes up a family is the people that surround you.
    All 5 siblings have earned a Brownie badge for compassion effort and sharing .

    • Reply Anne October 27, 2016 at 5:36 pm

      Yes, am taking the rose for my own patch of heaven. Maybe some more plants. Yes indeed.!!!

  • Reply Elizabeth Julian October 27, 2016 at 7:42 pm

    Oh Anne!
    Thank you for your gift of words and sharing happy memories. I had tears in my eyes as i read this

    • Reply Anne October 27, 2016 at 9:39 pm

      Some things remain potent. Thanks for the feedback!

  • Reply Geri October 27, 2016 at 8:08 pm

    So lovely to read this Anne! I can picture all of it happening as you described…so many memories for all of you.

    • Reply Anne October 27, 2016 at 9:40 pm

      Yes, we are all having some laughs over all the found treasures!

  • Reply Meg Connell October 27, 2016 at 8:17 pm

    Great memories Anne…mine include all the wonderful birthday parties, getting dressed up for Halloween, packed Christmas carol parties, and of course, endless hours playing with all the Fisher-Price toys!

    • Reply Anne October 27, 2016 at 9:58 pm

      I might just have to dig up some old pics, my dear friend!

  • Reply Jane October 27, 2016 at 8:55 pm

    JAL on the hibachi, cooking up burgers. Climbing the maple tree on that swinging rope ladder. The wooden totem pole that once scared me but then became my friend. Hoofing over the fence into the Jones or the Carnegie’s after someone| “kicked the can” and building camp fires with JEHL, after he learned the mirror technique. Fisher Price which never got tired. The zucchini that seemed to be on steroids but was just well loved. SPUD. I can smell the lilacs and the lily of the valley from here…and a tomato sandwich in July can transport me right back to that slice of heaven.

    • Reply Anne October 27, 2016 at 10:04 pm

      The hibachi!!! As for that fence, I used to dart through all those backyards as shortcut to HC.

    • Reply Suzie (Suzanne McMeans) November 30, 2016 at 9:50 pm

      I saw John recently and he told me about the house being sold. I was so sad, but of course I understand it’s time. Thank you, Anne (and Jane!)… Your words and photos bring back wonderful childhood memories.

      Here’s another – Countless attempts by Jane and I to dig all the way to China from that yard, much to the chagrin of your parents.

  • Reply Nancy October 28, 2016 at 1:48 am

    Love all of this And it speaks to all of us. Especially those of us (me) with late onset adulthood. So hard to part with that which we love This house was made great by this family!. Xxx

    • Reply Anne November 10, 2016 at 2:18 pm

      Cheers to late onset adulthood.XO

  • Reply Alexandra October 28, 2016 at 11:26 am

    I will never forget moving in here while we renovated our house. It takes very special Grandparents to take in teenagers and a dog! The was something enchanting about moving into your mom’s childhood home and sleeping in your aunts childhood bed. Although I will miss this spot, another family deserves a piece of the magic that grows at 129.

    • Reply Anne November 10, 2016 at 2:17 pm

      All the grandkids have their unique takes on the place. How great that you got to live under that roof for a spell. Thanks for sharing! xo

  • Reply Karen November 2, 2016 at 2:23 pm

    The gifts of imagination, exploration, creativity, steadfastness, expectation, laughter, and love were so admirably nurtured in your beautiful childhood oasis. Thanks for remembering and for sharing.

    • Reply Anne November 10, 2016 at 2:16 pm

      Beautiful words. Thank you xo

  • Reply Jill Townson (Whiteman) November 9, 2016 at 9:08 pm

    I ‘fell’ into this website following a post by my ‘old’ friend Bill Best. I went to school – and music/concerts and much more – with Mary! I remember the house – and Christmas sing-along festivities,. I have many memories of your family – best wishes to you all. Looking forward to your delicious updates.

    • Reply Anne November 10, 2016 at 2:15 pm

      Wow. So great to hear from you and hear some of your memories about the house. XO

  • Reply John July 7, 2019 at 2:42 pm

    Great to read this. How about the third floor bathtub , the flat roof over the porch for suntan, the basketball net for 2-2,, raking leaves, June lilacs with janes birthday and Uncle Jack,, manicotti , leave it in the “milk box”, get a cup of sugar from the Jones, red river at the breakfast table, Polly and her smokes, home movies on Sunday in the basement…

  • Reply Mary Cork July 7, 2019 at 6:52 pm

    Many hours of my best childhood memories are also wrapped up in your magnificent home. Picnics in the garden, special events or parties for any occasion – The famous Langford Christmas Carol party
    Your words couldn’t have captured the emotions any better

  • Reply Jen Schaefer July 10, 2019 at 7:38 pm

    Wonderful words for a much loved home! I feel your pain although not as much history as I begin to pack the home I have raised my children in, I hope the new owners don’t tear it down as it has so much potential, and of course the captain planet in me reminds all that there is a lot of new things in it that will last. Thinking of you as you relive your beautiful memories of a simpler time. Taking remnants of the garden is a great way to continue
    to cherish those memories.

Leave a Reply to Geri Cancel Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Sign up for my buzz sheet!

Join Anne’s Inner Circle for inspiration for your kitchen and conversation for your table. Sign up here for my newsletter of treats, delivered straight to your inbox, only for subscribers.

Archives

Recent Posts

  • TIFF 2020: Adapt or Die
  • Blink of an Eye Day
  • Poetry (and pears) before April fades
  • Be the bloom
  • Lessons in readiness

Categories

  • Art
  • Books
  • Coming soon
  • Film
  • Guest Bloggers
  • Headlines
  • Life
  • Performance
  • Recipes
  • Rituals
  • Travel
  • Urban gadfly
  • With Love and Sugar
Facebook Twitter Instagram Linkedin

Made with in Seattle

© 2014 Anne Langford. All rights reserved.