Dwelling in the Past.

My day Saturday was spent doing just this. My Grandfather, who is 89, and I spent the day Saturday exploring Springfield. Papa was a carpenter by trade, and built many buildings in Springfield. It was more than just a chance to see the structures themselves, but an opportunity for him to remember the experiences and the people he's known along the way. Through the course of the day he shared silly stories of men who worked for him or interesting things about a certain job. he recalled what year a job was some by remembering where he was living at the time or what was going on with his family while he was working on a project. When we stopped at Westminster, he told me of the day he was digging the basement and someone came to tell him my grandmother had had a stroke.

One project that over the years I have heard him talk about was the Fountains at what is now Cox North Hospital. At the time he built them there were three, nowd only one remains. He has often talked about the challenge of building them. The fountains were covered inside and out with a mosaic tile and filled with colored lights, they nolonger have the tiles and sadly no longer have water in them. Lester Cox, namesake for the Cox hospitals, after seeing how fond my Granfather was of the project and especially the tile gave him a box of the tiles to use on a project at home. Papa was rnovating a farmhouse and he used the tiles to cover the bathroom vanity.



We saw many things on our journey around town, but, our first stops holds the most memories and the most signifigance for our family. Our first stop was the corner of Fremont and Central, "the old neighborhood" as my mom and my Aunt Glenda refer to it. My Papa proudly served our country in WWII, prior to leaving for his tour he built a small house for my Grandma,their daughter Glenda, and my Grandma's sister Orean to live in while he was gone. The house did not originally sit where it does now, it was moved and then added on to, but the original structure remains and he is so proud of it. The second hous that sit s on this corner is a small white house that he built for his young family, this is the house that my mom came home to when she was born. This house sits much the same as the day he built it.


I love spending time with Papa and love to hear his stories. He has lived a full life, had many adventures and has much to be rpoud of. I appreciate that he takes the time to spend a day Dwelling on the past with me so that my children will be able to tell their children the full story of who this man was, because it is a story worth telling.