I Love Old Things"

It's Vintage Summer Monday and , although i didn't get the chance to go "junkin".....i thought i'd share my love of all things "vintage" by sharing one of my favorite old books. It's called "I Love Old Things"written by Harold Darling. 

Enjoy.....

"Most people love newness. They glory in things new-made, primally clean, unmarked by use. They like chinaware gleaming in its fresh glaze, clocks that never need winding, books fresh from the press, the songs of the day, houses blank of other lives, the smell of a new car, chairs without troubled joints. They want new things around them because these make them feel fresh and clean, ready to step into life as one steps from a cool shower into a new day.

I understand these feelings, sometimes even share them, but mostly…I love old things.

I love old cities, those whose streets whisper the secrets of centuries, ones in which buildings lean against one another like family dogs asleep.

I love old houses, those with crooked windows, room of all sizes, tall ceilings, soundless walls, basements, attics, shady yards, and tipsy chimneys.

I love houses with porches that can be lived on, where the sound of a glider or the creak of a rocker is clear against the stillness, where fireflies float and a pitcher of iced tea slowly mists.

I love old rooms, those with time-polished floors, deep fireplalces, many-paned windows – rooms filled with memories.

I want in my rooms fire that has been tamed. I want candle light, yellow and gentle, moving as the air moves, soft as a flower, making everything lovely. I want fire in a fireplace, groaning and spitting like a living being, making a room a place where one is never alone, inviting us to daydream.

I love old gardens, ever changing, yet recalling something of their maker’s plan, places where one leaves time for a paradise of odors, colors, and forms.

I love old trees storm beaten whisperers, offering us in summer a world of shade, and in winter their bare beauty.

I love old shops, ones with crowded windows and overflowing shelves, places where the endless quest can be pursued, the unknown discovered, and rewards achieved.

I love old things; ones that were made to last, and have lasted. I love them because they bring me closer to the past from which I grew, and to those who made and used them. I love them because I admire their ingenuity, skill, and design, and because... I feel that it is right to cherish that which has been cherished by those that came before me.

Best of all old things are old books, fragrant, subtle in their faded jackets, a limitless universe of knowledge and passion, waiting patiently for a reader to open them and enter.

I love old songs, the ones that people sang together through all the dramas of their lives, the songs that were passed like heirlooms from one generation to another, and are still remembered.

I love old tales, one shaped over generations and proven good through the testing on listeners of all ages and minds. Such tales as these never grow old.

I love the old way of doing things, customs that sustain us by their constancy, and connect us with all those men and women who have gone before.

I love the old holidays, the ones which in my childhood were the high points of the year. My parents and their parents before them looked forward to these days as avidly as I. The celebration, the decoration, the family meal – these habits of the best kind.

I love old ruins for their melancholy splendor; they show me the persistence of beauty in the face of time."

Happy Vintage Summer Monday Mes Amies! 

This will be my last VSM post as I prepare to welcome in "L'Automne!"

Avec Amour,

~*~Michelle~*~