Mia's Castle
In view from the porch of my aunt's house (which when I was growing up was my grandmother's house) is the remains of one of the old Holgate factories. I have a memory of a building actually standing around the still-standing smokestack, but I don't know if that is accurate or created based on everyone else's stories.
The Holgate Toy Company was once a huge employer in my hometown in the early to mid-20th century. My own grandparents were both at one time employees of Holgate, and it is where they met. The story is that they were both rolling barrels on the shop floor and their barrels bumped.
One evening since we've been back, we were out on the porch at my aunt's with my sister and her daughter Mia. Mia is three-and-a-half and loves all things frilly and princessy. She pointed to the smokestack and said, "Look, Jen. That's Mia's castle!"
Sometimes I wonder if everything doesn't look better through Mia-colored glasses.
The Holgate Toy Company was once a huge employer in my hometown in the early to mid-20th century. My own grandparents were both at one time employees of Holgate, and it is where they met. The story is that they were both rolling barrels on the shop floor and their barrels bumped.
One evening since we've been back, we were out on the porch at my aunt's with my sister and her daughter Mia. Mia is three-and-a-half and loves all things frilly and princessy. She pointed to the smokestack and said, "Look, Jen. That's Mia's castle!"
Sometimes I wonder if everything doesn't look better through Mia-colored glasses.
Comments
Joyful and sad at the same time. Interesting that Mia sees things through her eyes unaffected by years of much colder realities. Where she sees a castle, you and I see a closed factory that used to employ a lot of people.
Wait a minute. For the people who used to work there, did they see a castle too once?
Meg summarized a kid's viewpoint. I was once on an airplane. A young boy was running up and down the aisle having a blast. It was fun to watch. Someone sitting next to me said "Its nice to be that young and have the ability to self-entertain. You lose that later in life".
As for the castle remark, I was thinking more along the lines of having to work at the castle, so the metaphor matches Mia's thoughts, but where Mia sees a fantasy in her castle description, I was referring to the drudgery (that's not the word I'm looking for) of having to go to work everyday. Think of the first Apple commercial that came out years ago.