Roughshod - Part Five - "Line of Forts"

Roughshod

Part Five

"Line of Forts"

            The solution (continuing from the end of Part Four); the current resolve, is to delineate the “that” of the ‘old New England antiques’ in the ‘old New England home... as a ‘back there’ (in the homes) with the foreground and beyond being the everything else including ‘they don’t know’ and... “bad taste”.  It is so much easier that way.  It is too... not accommodating and is not intended to be.  No:  Not done... the ‘correction’ ‘of old New England’ “bad taste”.  Showing it off (“bad taste”) in an old New England home is...

            “Fine enough” says Calvin Acres.  He stands, with the old New England antiques in their old New England homes, behind his titled “Line of Forts”.  A ‘line of forts’ are found among the old New England antiques and their old New England homes?  What could that be?

            Well... the... Colonial New England era developed a line of (small outpost) “forts”, made of logs... along the Northern edge of the southern New England English settlements... with these ‘forts’ (square log walls, log cabins, dirt floor and primitive constructions...) intended to be a first warning of the approach of any “others” than the English ‘pioneer’ family farm ‘settler stock’.  And repel that approach.  Of the any and all who would... in any way... “approach”.  This titled ‘line of forts’ stretched from Albany, New York to Portland, Maine, inclusively.  And did actually “work”.

            So when Calvin turns this fort line concept on the ‘they don’t know’ and ‘bad taste’, we find he means that... coming from the vantage of old New England antiques and their remnant stock of undisturbed old New England homes...  (Yes I just said that the authentic undisturbed antiques have out survived the authentic homes in ‘undisturbed’ New England).  ...Calvin thereby... views his ‘home’ and ‘antiques’ as a “they know” and... have “good taste”.

            Calvin does not pay a bounty for the scalp locks of the ‘they don’t know’ and ‘bad taste’ set (populace) as the English Crown did to the ‘settlers’ for, well... “them” (the others who approached and lost... their scalp locks).  No.  He just surveys and denotes ‘them’ and ‘bad taste’ and... diverts any approach.  “Frozen out:  I am very good at freezing them out” an elderly matron once declared to me... at the front door of her family’s homestead as we stood together at her open-to-the-sun front doorway.  Together, we were “surveying the street” (her words).  That is it for what I am speaking of here;  the forts and their ‘freezing out’.  As I said of the line of forts, “this does actually work”.

            And may seem “horrible” at first.  That is okay.  The ‘others’ get used to it; being ‘frozen out’ and ‘of bad taste’.  It actually ‘goes by them’.  “TOO BUSY SANDING THEIR FLOORS” explains Calvin.  “AND READING THE BIBLE”.  He says too.  I am not going to explain that; the fear of God in old New England and how that Bible is read.  Just take what Calvin said to your bank... and bank it.  Then ponder:  Would one of these frail old matrons standing in the sunny doorway... actually scalp “ME”?  And then go to church?  This is ‘very’ old New England.  “I went to church and talked with God this morning.  See the dew on my BOOT TIPS.”  Just remember that... that... is going on all the time in this... too.

            So Calvin looks at the line of forts and the declaration of taste to be a matter “with God” too.  And never says that:  Bad taste is a (the) Devil... in old New England.  Now- then-so... when the northwest wind howls and the leafless tree branches rake the white side wall of the old New England home’s exterior... THAT... is the reckoning of the way it is, including the (house is) “not insulated”?  Yes this is THAT.  And how is one going to attack a fort such as that?  And prevail and ‘carry off’ (plunder) its treasure?  It is... almost... “impossible”.  If one has bad taste.  In old New England... the murmur of God is... good taste.  As are old graveyards... and Colonial settlers’ cemeteries. 

            An example of a fort... upon the line of forts of the old New England antiques in the old New England home?  Of course, dear.

            American Federal

            Period

            Style.

            Say... Boston, Salem, New York... Portsmouth, Portland.  New Hampshire.  Say “domestic furnishings”.

            Glass, ceramics, furniture, silver, iron, brass.

            Tin, leather, wood, paint.

            English Neoclassical decorative straight lines with

            Appropriate sitting postures.  Tea services.  Coin silver teaspoons and

            Brown sugar.

            The silver service was “MADE” from “SILVER COINS”

            “MELTED DOWN”.

            One sips, speaks and keeps the ‘sewing’ in a ‘sewing basket’.

            On a ‘sewing stand’.

            The ‘silver’ and ‘old paste’ (English earthenware ceramics) touch the lips.

            All is as it should be... in the old New England.

            The (ceramic ‘stoneware’) jugs... made in Charlestown, MA in 1806... and holding the household’s molasses or vinegar at the cellar stair head off of the kitchen... they are... exactly equal... of ‘period design’ to the Neoclassical gilt gold and white looking glass and its frame... in the (a better room of your choosing; not a cellar’s stair).  “ENGLAND” it was “CAME FROM”.  That was:  The “Looking Glass”.  By war and by sea... the looking glass came “to New England” (1800-1820 the “Free Trade and Sailors Rights” war.. the American Federal war) (the war that furnished the old New England homes) (war).  And stayed there... in the old New England homes... until I “carried it off”.  Do you think?  How about “feel”?

            I could be the first one to “take that off the wall” after it was ‘hung there’ for ‘over two hundred years’.  Yes even that becomes a “I HAVE A LITTLE BIT OF A PROBLEM WITH THAT”... carry off.  Especially if one is the ‘always doing that’.  OH... now, now, now... I left the ‘later stuff’ for the ‘clean out crew’ and... they’d never know a good old looking glass... anyway.

            So the line of forts protects a Neoclassical jug of vinegar... oh you didn’t know that the ovoid form of these old jugs was... based on Grecian ovoid jug forms?  Getting that under your belt perhaps will suggest a much more cautious exploration and observation in an old New England home as to where and what all the ‘old things’ “ARE” that are “IN THERE”.  And... where they are in there... too.  Vinegar jugs are well liked classic New England Federal design.  As are “hung” (hanging on a wall) ‘imported’ English Neoclassical looking glasses.  Your not going to ride roughshod over this.  You cannot get past the line of forts that guard against the ‘they know nothing’ and ‘have bad taste’.  What do you believe; the looking glass ‘moved to Kentucky’?  Sometimes, rarely, they actually did.  But most of the time they are still “hanging there”... in New England.  For example:  IN old New England and its home... which... is the better cultural value AND... the heritage of truth; a ‘lawn sprinkler system’ or an “that old mirror”?  Which one ‘holds the line’ of ... fine and... refined... design?  Then buy one of those:

            The proper antique looking glass for an old New England home.  The lawn will ‘get by’.

            That is how simple this is.  Harsh.  Simple.  You don’t know then you don’t know.  AND “everyone” may see that AND ‘know this’.  Harsh.  Simple.  Roughshod?

            No.

            Affordable?  Yes.

            Available?  Yes.

;            Nominal... exercise of self education (“going to a museum”)?  Yes.

            “Breaking your wallet”?  No.

            This last, especially over time (a ‘your lifetime’ of ‘learning’, ‘discovering’, ‘finding’, ‘acquiring’ [one “THING” at a time], ‘placing’, ‘keeping’ and ‘living with’ [“collecting”) is all there.  All one needs to do is “show up” and “start” and... it will go from there; a never ending journey discovering the things that are art (old art) in the old New England home.  But choose to “not know” and, too, show “bad taste”.  Calvin Acres prides himself on ‘spotting’ you ‘early’ and

            “Not wasting the time”.  This discernment “makes” him “giddy”.

            When Calvin comes out of his cellar hole (Photographs, Part Four) that is under his “cape” (built 1752) (twenty-six feet by thirty feet ‘square’) (“unfinished chamber” [the ‘second floor’])  He follows the footsteps of eleven generations “there”.  He bumps his head “there”... just like his great, great, great grandfather did “there”.  Looking at the cellar hole entry... he smirks off the utterance of “WHAT BAD TASTE I HAVE” fooling with this stone stepped creep hole of his as if it is an art treasure.  Serene... cool... moist it has poised “there” for friends and family, snakes and toads... for two hundred and fifty years of old New England settlement using old New England ‘rock’ (Granite).  “NOT SO FAST” says Calvin to the man saying “FIX THAT” with “CEMENT”.  That one; an ‘approach’, has been spotted from the line of forts.  And is frozen out.