As most of yall know, Russ and I renovated the home I grew up in on Guernsey....its been in our family since 1953. I was sitting here at my office window and I saw a lady outside taking pictures of the house...my first thought was that it was a realtor and so I walked out the front door to find out what she was doing. Every day I get realtors and developers knocking on my front door suggesting I sell out and get out so they can tear down my home, only to build more student housing. She walked up to the front door and said, I grew up in this house. My first response was, no you didnt, I did. She said, no really....I lived here until I was 13 years old, Im Nancy Terrell. I said youve got to be kidding! My parents bought this house from your parents in 1953. She was as stunned as I was that this house has only had two owners. Originally built in 1942 by Herschel Burgess, her parents bought this house for their family of five. She couldnt believe that we had retained over 70% of the original hardwood floors....floors she had played on when she and her brother and sister were growing up. She had a phenomenal memory and told me things about our home that I never knew. When she saw the French Doors - that her parents had put up - she almost cried. They had been in the attic for well over 50 years and Russ and I had them restored. When I pulled the original attic stairs down, we both laughed at the memories of climbing up and down them to change out our seasonal clothes in the cedar closet. She was snapping photos furiously, and I was so honored for her to be in our home. We climbed in the same trees, we swung on the same swing, we both got broken bones going over Billy Goats Bridge. Nancy is in her early 70s and this is the first time shes been home to College Station in over 50 years. She married and has lived in New York State all these years. Like many of us, she couldnt believe the oldest neighborhood in College Station is pretty much Aggie Shacks....she wondered why the City hasnt been more pro-active in saving our historic neighborhoods and sadly, I had no answer for her....its a developers paradise, one which the City seems to pay homage to....not those of us interested in preserving what little history we have left. This is lengthy, I know....but Nancys visit really struck home. Can you imagine coming back nearly 60 years later...to the house you grew up in...and still finding it intact...and with your footprints still on the house?
Posted on: Wed, 07 May 2014 23:03:41 +0000
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