Mary asked us:
>
> But what else is there?

I've touched on some of this before, but I don't mind pulling it all
together.

Growing up across the street from the Wycoff/Bennett homestead, the oldest
house in New York City still occupied by the original family line-1760s.
Driving a "spaldeen" through one of the windows one stickball game, and
being taught, after abjectly knocking on the door to 'fess up, how to
reglaze the sash, using glass from the 18th Cent. stash down in the
basement. Then being invited back again and again to explore the house and
Victorian carriage barn.

Having a father who dreamed of my becoming a surgeon (what else?) and who
set up a workshop in the basement  so that I would have confidence in my
manual dexterity: No power tools-too threatening to a surgeon's hands. Just
old hand tools, and just enough knowledge on my father's part to get me
started using them. His mistake! My heaven!

Having a grandfather who had practiced the jeweler's trade in the Old
Country, but had given it up here; who never spoke that I can remember, but
spent hours with me, and  with a bit of silver wire and his ancient tools,
sadly now lost, showing me that one can work one's will on any material
with enough knowledge and skill.

Having another grandfather who was a painting contractor, who taught me
that patience and careful preparation were as important to getting a job
done well as was having the skills to do it.

Spending week-ends wandering the streets of NY, finding the Teddy Roosevelt
house, the Grange, the Friends meeting houses in Jamaica and on Gramacy
Park, the Old Merchant's house and Sailor's Snug Harbor, the Sephardic
cemetery in the village, the Apthorpe, the details dripping off buildings
on every block, and on and on. What a city! And Lever House, the UN, the
Municipal asphalt plant, Grand Concourse and the 42nd Street Airlines
Terminal.

Spending summers in camps in Vermont, Pennsylvania and New York; climbing
in barns and realizing one day that the frames were all constructed to
subtly different plans. Exploring houses and starting to learn of the
regional differences displayed in their construction, and of the variety of
influences of Old World cultures.

Traveling in Europe as an adolescent and learning to appreciate the irony
that what was "old" at home was just starting to get a decent patina there.
Seeing 13th Century houses in the Marais(?) being trussed up by timbers
that were already long in place when the Wycoff/Bennett house was being
constructed. And learning that the best buildings of all periods had
something in common in their presence.

Visiting museums in New York, London, France and Italy and discovering that
there were a thousand different styles of furniture, and that the same
thing could be said about the best of them, and knowing that I was already
started learning how to keep an ancient building alive, if only by keeping
the rain outside, and how to make or repair furniture that might someday be
worthy of inclusion in a museum.

Reading history by flashlight, head buried under the covers,
listening to Symphony Sid, and realizing that as long as the material
heritage of the eras I was reading about survived that what I read was much
more than just stories.

Bruce