Have you ever seen a picture of a person or thing that just captured your imagination and sent your thoughts into wild flights of fancy? A house listed in Old House Dreams did that for me this morning. The mansion is white, large, imposing and beautiful. It could have been lifted from the pages of Gone With the Wind. It sits like a majestic, silent queen holding court among live oaks that are draped in Spanish moss. It speaks volumes without saying a word, of times past and of people who still exist in the pages of history. Built in 1850, how in the world did it escape the flames and plunder of the Civil War? But, it did, and hurricanes, and anything else that could have destroyed it.
How many births, deaths, triumphs and heartbreaks have taken place within those walls? What plans have been made, hopes have been realized or dashed to pieces? Built in a time that is distant in more than years– in manners and standards and world views– it is still regal and noble.
This plantation, Bayside is its name, invites the imagination to soar. It has existed through many eras of American history. Each of the people who called it home through the years had a story. This writer would have a field day setting a mystery within its walls.
Would I want to live there? No. It would be far too lonely. It needs people, a bustling family as it once had. If I did want to live there, could I attain that lofty goal? Not unless each of the six cozy mysteries I’ve written became best-sellers and brought me wealth and fame that I could only dream of.
It’s a lovely plantation; it has come through many dangers and disasters, yet it retains its beauty and dignity, sort of like an elderly person whose wise eyes have seen a lot of life. May Bayside excite the imagination and inspire wild flights of fancy for many years to come.
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