The shiny stuff of dreams

My grandparents home on Union Street was built in the late 1800s and was part of a lovely neighborhood called Carroll Gardens. This home featured quite a diversity of decor which no doubt changed over the years, but held a charm and a wonder for me. I was thinking the other day of the most magnificent piece in that home, a romantic and old worldly wonder. I have never seen its like anywhere else.

We always went into the house under the stairs after passing through the garden to the below ground floor, but the proper entrance was up the wide brownstone stairs just inside the gate. When you entered the house using the front stairs and went through the doors to your right you entered the parlor. It really is just like a parlor as described in any Victorian novel with 14 foot tall ceilings, majestically framed windows, beautiful crown molding and the marble fireplace along the center of the wall. Hanging in the middle of the ceiling was (and hopefully still is) a large multi-tiered crystal chandelier that to me was worthy of illuminating a ball with at least one Prince Charming waltzing me around the room! That chandelier was a wonder!

I remember it being about 4 or 5 graduated tiers, each one dripping with long prism shaped crystals hanging under a small crystal ball. There had to be at least a hundred of them. The piece looked like it must have weighed a ton! I believe the fixture was original to the home and when it was lit it glittered and shined with such beauty.

There is a lovely picture in that room, which unfortunately does not show the chandelier, but, features my teen aged mother and her sister Delores in layers of tulle and beautiful smiles sitting with handsome young men in tuxedos ready for the prom. One man is my father who looks slim and dashing. I know that light is shining on the romance of their evening as it did for all the young people who danced away from the parlor and into the world. It is a symbol of life and light that emanated from that home along with the generations of people who laughed and drank and partied in the parlor over the years. It shined on dozens of Christmas trees and wedding showers and after funeral "get-togethers" with a charm that is hard to come by these days. It mesmerized me as a child and brings back wonderful memories of the times I joined my family there.

My hope is that it shines on for many many more generations to enjoy.