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House guests and overnight company
The history of our area indicates guests came and stayed for weeks (even months) at a time. Given the rigors of travel, that seemed smart. I broke that rule of thumb some years ago when I went to visit my sister and stayed 8 months. She moved and so did I (with her). She seemed to never bring up the adage about fish and guests and the three day count, but we were like 19th century visitors then, not 21st century ones. Garfield is not a resort destination though we used to have two intersecting train lines. Growing up we had occasional guests almost all of whom were relatives. These visitors were exciting for the children who saw this as news from the outside before there was TV. Cousins visited from Niagara Falls, New York and Cleveland, Ohio and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Visitors came from Florida as well. One aunt had diabetes and she often was unstable. There were shouts through closed doors to bring the orange juice and sugar. I had no idea what was happening. Another aunt would fly into Augusta from Boston bring live lobsters long before they became available live in the supermarket. My grandmother from Florida would come most years for a long visit. But after three days someone would have to drive her back to Florida because she was worried about her chickens. She wanted to see us and then get right back to her garden, animals, paper backs and snuff. The most interesting guest we had was not exactly a relative. She was the mother of the wife of my mother's brother who lived on the Canadian border in New York. In fact this visitor was foreign, a Canadian. Mrs. Fix was an early snowbird who stopped to see us as we were conveniently located on her route to Florida. If not conveniently located, we were still the only connections she had for an overnight stay on her way into Florida. We hardly knew our aunt, much less her mother. She stayed and stayed and then we worried about her ever leaving. She was pleasant, helpful and even willing to show us some new things. She cooked a duck for us and stuffed it with sauerkraut. She resumed her journey after about three weeks. The only non-relatives were a few college friends. My sister brought home three girls while she was at Wesleyan. I remember one of them smoked. Christmas of 1966 I brought home a fellow Peace Corps trainee from California. He shaved his beard the night before we arrived in Twin City! After my parents got all of us out of the nest they had various guests. The most ironic one was Charles Rheberg. He spent the night with my parents before his wedding to Nancy Rowland. Years later his son, Phillip Rheberg, purchased my parents old house. As a head of house I have had various guests, friends from my varied past. My Peace Corps roommate with whom I shared various residences in Nairobi, Kenya visited me many times. Another friend from Kenya days came in an RV. He and his wife changed careers and took a year off to travel. In 1999 I got a new house in Garfield and also acquired a guest cottage next door. I have had nearly a decade to get it ready for guests. The guest room in the main house still works. No one stays more than three or four days. The cottage will be designed for longer stays. Perhaps another Mrs. Fix will come and stay for weeks bringing new cuisine, new ideas and new friendship.--Jack Atkinson is a guest columnist and a resident of Garfield.
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