Showing posts with label House. Show all posts
Showing posts with label House. Show all posts

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Spite



Big Pink


Iconic spite house built in 1925 on the road to the
Cathedral of the Great Wide World


It's old and abandoned, now owned by the federal government. Its location, sitting on the edge of the great marsh with a broad vista and compelling light, is a perfect setting for photography. And so, I've photographed Big Pink (my name for it), many times while on the way to the Cathedral.

It looks so idyllic, but it's a spite house (see link above). Like so many things in this world, appearance belies reality.

Since learning about Big Pink's spiteful history, it became linked in memory to my Great Great Grandfather. At the age of  seventy five, he sought a new wife after his fifty four year marriage ended when his first wife died. He somehow convinced a twenty-something schoolteacher from across the Connecticut River to marry him in return (in part) for the promise of a leather-bound bible. History records the promise as "the biggest Bible a team of oxen and cart could draw."

The two were married in 1841 and the bible delivered as promised. As with Big Pink though, there was more to the story. Since Great Great Grandfather was an ardent and vocal atheist (a risky thing to be back in the 1800's) he forbad his new bride from ever opening the book....a spiteful, dick move to be sure.

Over the next several years, after birthing five children, Great Great Grandmother descended into madness, and was eventually remanded to an insane asylum, the Dane County Poor House in Verona Wisconsin. She lived out the remaining fifty four of her eighty seven years in that little plot of hell on earth and was buried in a numbered grave in a pauper's cemetery.

Today, some residents of Wisconsin steal those grave markers for use as pavers in their back yard patios.. Some Wisconsonite may well be treading on my Great Great Grandmother's gravestone while swilling Budweiser and tending to the bratwurst on his gas grill. 



~



Thursday, November 14, 2019

A Much Anticipated Reunion



Ravenous




Go ahead.

Open it.

The abyss has been waiting for you.




~



Ravenous



Go ahead - Open it




Go ahead.

Open it.

Take a look inside.

You'll find out what it wants,
which is everything.




~




Tuesday, November 12, 2019