I'm back home from the Benchmarks Summer Institute, and I've been trying to recover... ie. sleep! But of course the domestics always "pile-up" so I started with my front yard flower bed and the over - grown lawn.

My cutting and weeding was interrupted by a friendly comment, "Your garden is really lovely...I used to live in your house!" What else could I do, but invite the couple out of their car and into my home for a tour and history swap. So for an hour I enjoyed stories as we walked from room to room listening to her experiences from 1950, some happy, some surprising and a few tears.

After a week of learning our History Concepts, I dove in with Evidence, Historical Perspective and Continuity and Change. I learnt about how the house had changed, what it was like as a 12 year old in the 50's, and  where she met her husband of 50 years when they worked together at the local grocery store. The highlight was the ghost story. One of the three spinsters who lived on the second floor died in the house while she was making porridge one morning. She heard the "thud", but the other two women, not wanting to disturb the girls, waited until they had left for school before calling the ambulance. So Cool!

I know I've thought of going to see the house where I was born and have my first memories, which makes me  wonder how many other people drive by houses of significance without every going inside. After my experience this morning, I think I have a new field trip planned. Go for it.

p.s. She didn't know anything about the 1927 letter I found in the kitchen cupboards during my rennovation. My history detective will have to continue.