Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Foley Funeral Home or Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

This is PART of my neighbor Frank Foley's house, business, and compound. And this is a 10 foot high wall, which Frank has touched up every few years or so. The wall is 130 years old. Frank is less.

From my bedroom I can see over the wall and see why it's there and when I tell people, those who have seen it initially act surprised then nod because it makes perfect sense.

At Christmas, Frank and his wife, Betty, decorate a large bush with lights that, because of the odd geometry involved, can only be seen by them and me. It has sort of an intimate 'Christmas gift left on the steps' sort of feel to it.

I've never met Frank or Betty but I like them a lot. They are perfect neighbors, quiet and keep to themselves. And they won't meet me until I'm wheeled over and embalmed.

7 comments:

  1. Why do I think they will build it bigger now?

    ReplyDelete
  2. i grew up opposite Frank E. Campbell (where basically "everyone" goes, once they're dead of course). my best friend susie, who lived across the hall with a bedroom window facing the back entrance had me convinced that one night she saw them unloading a corpse and the arm fell out from under the cloth... no fences in nyc.

    ReplyDelete
  3. OH! Jeez! No! That's not why it's there. All the loading and unloading takes place on the OTHER side of the house. *THIS* side is lawn and gardens. I live on a hill but not the TOP of the hill and Frank sits higher and can see over our house (I THINK) much the way we can see over houses to the south of us.

    I never noticed it, even looking into the yard from my bedroom window until one day I saw a hired man raking leaves and those pointy stones, 10 feet over MY head were just over HIS ankles. I initially wondered why the damned fool was raking the top of the wall then saw him walk back from it and not fall his his broken ankles.

    The lawn of that property used to come nearly to the side of this house but then a road was needed in between to access some OTHER property, so the lawn was dug out and this fence is actually a retaining wall for the rest of the lawn.

    ReplyDelete
  4. CREEPY look...
    365 days celebrating halloween, i guessed
    heheheehehehhehe....
    interesting tht u have those funeral house in housing areas...
    ours...mostly are those out of town place

    ReplyDelete
  5. Trying to keep the necrophiliacs out I guess.

    ReplyDelete
  6. zbjernak: We like to keep our dead close by.

    jozee: don't work.

    jenn see: Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  7. JKirlin, only you could make this interesting. Fascinating, matter of fact. Maybe all of us are peepers at heart?

    ReplyDelete

Jen White