My website has recently been redesigned, and I couldn’t be more pleased with Heather DePriest of Montana Grafix! She’s done a fantastic job! When she first proposed a new website designed for smart phones, I knew I needed to convert and waited a year. Now, the new and improved site has e-mail capabilities, visitors can book a tour on my website, and a blog.
I’m aware of blogs. I don’t really read them too much, but there are some that I enjoy. The Ribbon in My Journal is one, and the other is The Pioneer Woman. Each has its own charm, and oftentimes makes a rough day a little better!
Why did I name my blog “Behind the Lace Curtains”? Well, because I can be an incorrigible snoop when it comes to old houses! I often wonder what’s behind those lace curtains? A lovingly restored and kept home? A messy but happy home full of laughter? A pig sty? When it comes to old homes, though, all have a character no new structure will ever have. It’s in the building’s bones and like one’s heritage, something that can’t be denied.
Also, there was an episode of “Dateline” hosted by Keith Morrison (I think he’s very smart and easy on the eyes!) and it was about a lady who was a teacher, who had been murdered by the son of a former boyfriend. She was from Charleston, South Carolina, the test case city for practically every historic preservation law in the United States. The opening lines were: “Deep in the cobblestone heart of Charleston, South Carolina, past the T-shirt tourist quarter, down among the courtly antebellum mansions that stand in memory of a more mannered time, lived a quintessential Southern belle, a Charleston jewel. Charleston was Mary Lynn Witherspoon’s world. The old South was carefully preserved along exclusive Tradd Street, whose ancient shutters and lace curtains, designed to deflect the Southern sun, now serve also as a shield against the prying eyes of tourists as they wander in this far.” Footage showed jaw-dropping historic homes, quaint churches, and manicured gardens and lawns over which people like me drool. It was a sad, sad story to be sure, but just the way Keith Morrison read those lines made me think “I want to stroll those streets and see those houses with the lace curtains!”
Of course, I have my two historic homes, both with lace curtains. The set in The Cottage’s parlor was once owned by a good friend, Betty Peck. She and her husband, Ray, were very good to me, and I’m happy to have known them. Both are gone now, but every time I look at a picture of them and myself photographed at the old Stone House Restaurant that was once in Reeder’s Alley in my beloved Helena and fond memories come to mind. The Mansion has some very pretty lace curtains I purchased at K-mart earlier this year. More on The Cottage, and The Mansion, and more than likely my beloved Helena later!
If you have ever tried to look through lace curtains, you already know they do a fantastic job of keeping “prying eyes” from seeing what is inside, just like Mr. Morrison said. But just beyond those curtains can lie wonderful things, and I hope you will join me in this journey sharing with you the wonders, joys, trials, tribulations, but always rewarding experience of living in the two oldest single-family homes in my beloved hometown, Havre, Hill County, Montana!
Warmest Montana wishes!