Posted by on Aug 8, 2013 in Larry's Musings | 0 comments

Until my 6th year of school my family and I lived in a small tar paper house that was built in a day by my Dad’s friends as a wedding present. It had a living room, a kitchen and two bedrooms for a family of 6. The house was rough on the inside with no insulation and heated by a woodstove. In our minds it was a palace and a home. I miss that house still. There has never been a house as grand or a kitchen so warm.

In the valley where the Big Elk River runs all the houses began as shacks. The farmers built their own after the barns were built and the animals were safe. Loggers cut down trees and built small cabins in the woods to accommodate their wives and children and the sawmills that sprung up along the river built mill shacks to house their workers.
Tar paper, nails, and rough cut timber bound them all and made room for all.
A general store appeared, and a post office, then a school and eventually a church. In each and every case the goal was shelter and place to work, love, and hope.

I am surrounded by large houses now where I live. Money and property, large cars, boats and every conceivable comfort is afforded but the house in my neighborhood seem empty and cold. The gardens are immaculate and the lawns are always green and short. The people never share their lives.

.

battery house

battery house

.

school house

school house

.

grant place

grant place

.

barker house

barker house

.

tar paper shack

tar paper shack

.

chipper house

chipper house

.

all images: copyright Larry and Sabine Calkins, 2013