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When I was 3 years old, my parents moved our family of five kids with one on the way to a stately, old Victorian style home in the heart of Woodsdale. I was just a toddler or so, but I clearly remember climbing the wide wooden steps to the front porch.
The front door was a broad, heavy door with an oversized brass-looking door knob. The door was flanked by two leaded glass windows that allowed light to enter and create prisms of color on the shining hardwood floors. It felt magical to this young child.
Entering the front hall, there were large white pillars that helped form an archway into a dining room. To the left was the formal living room with a carved mantel over the fireplace. To the right of the door was a cubby with a wide window seat. It would soon hold hats, mittens and winter boots for the family.
The stairway leading to the second floor had two landings as it made its way to the bedrooms and bath above. Beautiful woodwork adorned the walls and staircase spindles.
The kitchen was roomy enough to hold a table for eating and offered adequate space for a high chair that was forever part of the home's decor.
This house was built before air conditioning had evolved so it was window screens and fans that cooled the house in the summer. Winter brought its challenges with those single-pane windows but the radiator heat took the chill off. Those radiators also served as the perfect place to dry wet towels or mittens.
When I was of school age, I would place my sweater on the radiator so it would give me a warm start to a winter morning as we headed out to school. Our dad would perform some sort of mechanical "bleeding" of the radiators with the change of seasons. We were always searching for the radiator keys that helped in that process.
The basement of the home was typical for the era with dropped ceilings, tile floors and fireplace that truly kept us warm when severe winters challenged the radiator heat. While the house had its challenges, Dad said it had a solid foundation and that was the most important part of any structure.
That's not to say our mom didn't make changes to the homestead over the years.
A former unheated mudroom near the kitchen was remodeled for heat and served as an extra space for meals.
The wooden front porch was removed and replaced with a sturdy concrete poured surface. Wallpaper was routinely changed throughout the house.
But the foundation remained constant. It did not fail the heavy load that it would bear over the 60 years of my parents' family of 12 kids, assorted pets and occasional neighborhood kids hanging around.
The family house as I knew it is no longer. It has undergone drastic and well-earned changes and modernization. Yet I know that whoever lives there in the future can be assured of its firm foundation.
Any city, town, state or country for that matter would do well to stay true to their own foundations. Change is good and inevitable, but we need to maintain that which holds us up every day.
Heather Ziegler can be reached via email at hziegler@theintelligencer.net.