The Village Squire, 1981-09, Page 17One Day at a Time
by Jim Hagarty
The house that nature closed in on
I often have reason to drive the main
highways and the back roads of Perth and
Huron counties and sometimes, I have no
reason at all. I just like to tour around
looking at farms, villages and towns.
It's funny, but if I'm in a particularly
optimistic mood when 1 set out to travel
the two counties, I tend to see nothing but
progress and growth, change and im-
provement. On the other hand, if 1 happen
to be in a melancholy frame of mind,
ominous signs of decay seem to loom out
at me from every direction.
On those days, I see all the old barns
that are slowly falling down in the area and
dozens of abandoned houses stare out at
me forlornly as I pass, their undressed
windows gazing like the sunken eyes of an
old, old man who is never too far from
tears.
It is these houses, especially, that leave
me with a feeling of loneliness and I wish I
could wave a magic wand and breathe life
back into them.
No doubt the universe is unfolding as it
should, but then again, maybe it isn't.
Perhaps there are too many large
landowners in our midst and not enough
simple farm people and families.
A beautiful church in Logan Township
was torn down last summer because there
simply weren't enough people left around
to carry on. From its heyday 50 years ago
when 250 people would crowd inside for
Sunday service, church attendance
dropped in its final days to 10 or 15.
On a back road in Hibbert Township, I
drive by three or four empty farmhouses
for every one that still has people living in
it. Or at least that's the way that it seems.
A friend and I were touring the area
around Kirkton one Saturday afternoon
when we thought we saw the rooftop of a
house, hidden by a grove of trees high on a
hill, a full quarter mile from the highway.
Allan backed his car up and stopped by
the side of the road and we looked again.
Sure enough, there was a house there and
we could also see a barn that had
completely fallen down.
We parked the car and started up a
barely -visible path that wound its way
from the road to the house. We timidly
crossed an old bridge that spanned a tiny
creek that cut across the farmer's land and
as we approached the house, we both fell
into a silence mixed with reverence and
some fear.
The two-storey frame building had been
totally concealed by evergreen and lilac
trees and bushes and we couldn't even see
it clearly until we were 50 feet away from
it. To get to its back door, we had to fight
our way through bushes that towered over
our heads.
On our way, we found a well, the
handpump still in place and we wondered
when the last time might have been that
someone had used it.
Remarkably, the inside of the house was
in reasonably good shape, though there
was hardly a pane of glass left in any of its
windows. Children had obviously not
bothered the place and even the weather
seemed to have been kind to it.
All furnishings were gone but here and
there, some clothes lay on the floor and in
an upstairs bedroom, papers were strewn
all around. Nervously, as if we expected
the family to return any minute and catch
us intruding in their home, we looked
through the documents and letters we
had found. We checked for dates and
names and we found lots of both. Some
material had 19th century dates on it and
the most recent document we could find- a
life insurance policy- was dated 1912. We
were guessing, but we thought it possible
that the home had been vacant since
around that time.
Seventy years and two world wars had
passed and this house had stood quietly
helpless as nature slowly closed in on it.
We tried to imagine where the family
had got to, why they left and as we walked
from room to room we talked about the
parties and prayers, arguments and tears,
fun and misery that may have been
experienced in each of them.
The last room we entered before we left
the place was a small pantry. At the same
instant, our eyes fell on a woolen cap that
hung on a spike in the wall and we could
see someone putting it there, perhaps
forgetting it when he left.
Though we had been there only a half
hour, we have wandered back 70 years
through time and as we drove away,
neither one of us said much.
And to this day, whenever I drive by the
place I slow my car and look in. Maybe I
expect, or maybe I hope, that someday l'Il
look up and see a light in the window.
Village
la.e
Squire
A Window on Western Ontario
available at:
Bayfield: The Village Market
Nip N' Tuck
Willow Tree Antiques
Benmlller: The Hollow
Blyth: Snell's Grocery Ltd.
The Blyth Theatre
Blyth Standard
Blyth Saga
Brussels: The Brussels Post
Clinton: C & E Variety
Board and Batten
Exeter: G & G Variety
Gord's Variety
Al Thumbs
Goderlch: Fincher's Ltd.
Jana Natural Foods
Triangle Discount
Huron County Pioneer
Museum
Grand Bend: Carole's Craft Cupboard
Hensall: Church House Antiques
Listowel: Smith's Red & White
London: Say Cheese
Multi Mag
The News Depot
fin: Country Crafts and Things
Lucknow: Sepoy Stationery
Milverton: Curiosity Shoppe
Mitchell: Scott's Dept. Store
Parkhill: McIntyre Drugs Ltd.
Seaforth: Larone's Dept. Store
The Huron Expositor
Marshall's of St. Marys
Wlldwood Inn
Fanfare Books
Gallery Stratford
J. S. Amusements
Harris Stationery
Tasty -Nu Bakery
Heimrich's Stationery
St. Marys:
Stratford:
Wingham:
Zurich:
Village Squire
Box 10
Blyth, Ont.
NOM 1H0
VILLAGE
SQUIRE/SEPTEMBER 1981 PG. 15