Private Pleasure Grounds in Everyday Ramblings

You can tell here by the angle of the shot that my neighborhood is built on a slope. When I went on the Archives Crawl on Saturday I came home with a one-page print out of an insurance map from the late 1850s of the four closest blocks.

Most Honorable and Kes were up visiting on Sunday and were kind enough to express an interest in what I learned and while waiting for our favorite restaurant to open we went for a little orienting walk.

On this map, earlier than the ones I had been looking at, where the park is across the street (that has that big metal sculpture) was just the mansion owned by the local rod iron king. But what I had not seen before was that in one corner, (where there is a concrete slab and a backstop for hitting balls now) there was a poultry yard.

There was also a bridge we didn’t know about and that was down from the raised railroad tracks I knew were there. We were trying to figure out where the creeks were. Apparently there was a creek that ran right through the property I live on and that makes sense in terms of watering the horses that lived in the stables.

In the far corner where the park is there is also a hand lettered space designated “Private Pleasure Grounds”.

I wonder if they had peacocks wandering around…

During the Archives Crawl I found a whole archive that the city has in conjunction with our local state university that I didn’t even know was there! And it is close. I basically walk by it three times a week.

I didn’t find the answer I was looking for about the kind of shop that was in the ground floor of one of the houses I am writing about but I got a lot closer to finding out where I might be able to find that out if I had world enough and time…

Changing subject here I admit to being heartened by this idea that younger folks have that certain behaviors are not acceptable.

I hope that this is a crest of a wave that will wash over us all and leave everyone with more respect for the dignity and wellbeing of women and dominion over our bodies.

And all this talk left me with an interesting thing to think about deeply and that is if you say racist or assaultive things, unaware or aware, does that make you a racist or a chauvinist?

With all this talk about triggers and the constraints implicitly implied if one wants to speak kindly is it words or is it deeds that matter?

There is so much anger and anxiety floating around out there.

I find I need to accept that people with whom I share a country can have radically different ways of perceiving the world. And that doesn’t make them stupid or delusional. I can feel the frustration and fear and disgust. I can hear it. I can see it. It is a kind of energy.

Man, if we could harness that and work towards making the government more effective, the people who work in it accountable and honest we could get many of our needs met.

Messy and effortful as it is.

I don’t think everybody gets their own private pleasure ground though. But somewhere between there and the poultry yard sounds about right. :)

Last updated October 11, 2016