A Couple of Marilla Photos

The snapshot below shows the essence of Gene and Clara's as a place and an institution, and, I would hope, explains the name of this blog.

They built the house in 1957.  We're seeing the kitchen not too long after that, and already so many of the vital elements are in place.  To the left, the hallway goes to the back door, which most visitors used, as well as indwellers.  So they checked out the garage as they came in, even if they were grandmas wearing fox stoles at the time.  This set the tone.  Of course, sometimes folk used the front door for fun. Then they would ring the doorbell, which had no microchip. A little hammer struck melodiously on long metal tubes.

On the walls we see the Polish Eagle on a card, and a recipe affixed to a cupboard door with a clothespin.  We see Suzette's dziura, her hidey-hole, with her leash hanging on the sidewall of it, a bit of her blanket, and a bit of herself at Clara's feet.  

Recipe books, Girl Scout candy in a tin, Southern Comfort,
Angostura bitters, stand mixer, electric frying pan.

That's a waffle iron on top of the refrigerator.
It's very benevolent-looking;
maybe it's the Buddha.

Clara is dressed like Julia Child - or perhaps Julia Child dressed like Clara - and it is important to realize that the stripes on her apron are in black, mauve, and greys, while the big band of pockets is a rich red.  Despite how that might sound, it looked great on her and against the oatmeal tweed of her below-the-knee sheath skirt.

Gene just got back from the office.

There's company in the house, over by the kitchen table, and somebody took that picture.  Blaise and Dorothy Militello may well have taken that picture. Wonderful neighbors: they first met in the winter, when the drifts were six feet high in front of the kitchen windows.  Clara looked up from the kitchen sink, and there were two feet on snowshoes standing on the snow directly in front of her. That was Dorothy, come over to say hello.

Below is the lead Militello saddle horse, Queenie, with Marty and Julie.  This is the driveway of their house, and across the road are buildings of the Pfitzinger farm.