My family and some friends of ours spent a portion of last evening at Birmingham's First Night celebration. The details of which don't matter, except for one aspect; our second stop at the Allen House. This was a house built in the first third of the 19th century, and has to be the oldest existing house in Oakland County--and it's located in a park in downtown Birmingham.
We were able to walk through the house and talk with the three interpreters who knew most of their "stuff." What's truly fascinating though is we were walking through the 19th century, while outside most people were looking forward to the next year of the 21st century (which unless I'm mistaken still has one more year to go before a new decade starts). The plank floors creaked under us, the dull iron and whitewashed walls caught our eyes, while outside cars rolled by and people spoke on cellular phones. Within the surprisingly quiet confines of the Allen house, we could take a moment to connect with people who were quite primitive by our standards, and yet, we shared so much. A desire for food, shelter, friends, family, a means to support ourselves. What else does one want from life? A blog? A fossil-fuled computer screen? I'd like to take the best of the 19th and 21st centuries and combine them somehow. What would that look like? Probably an Amish village somewhere.
We were able to walk through the house and talk with the three interpreters who knew most of their "stuff." What's truly fascinating though is we were walking through the 19th century, while outside most people were looking forward to the next year of the 21st century (which unless I'm mistaken still has one more year to go before a new decade starts). The plank floors creaked under us, the dull iron and whitewashed walls caught our eyes, while outside cars rolled by and people spoke on cellular phones. Within the surprisingly quiet confines of the Allen house, we could take a moment to connect with people who were quite primitive by our standards, and yet, we shared so much. A desire for food, shelter, friends, family, a means to support ourselves. What else does one want from life? A blog? A fossil-fuled computer screen? I'd like to take the best of the 19th and 21st centuries and combine them somehow. What would that look like? Probably an Amish village somewhere.
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