almost 'not in the picture'

People have made a few remarks about the telephone poles I've added to the backside of several of my birdhouses.

"What's it for?" "Hey, neat." "Why a telephone pole?"

I've said a variety of things: "It's a perch. Expensive decor. To supply hydro for the big screen TV."

Recently, a new feature has been added to half the birdhouses I slap together inside my small workshop.

["Take a peek at the back of these cedar houses"] 

I.e., a tiny birdhouse atop a tiny pole. When asked about it I will likely make a joke of some kind, but the real answer is found in the black and white below:

["Take a peek at the back of Grandma's house in Norwich"]  

In 1941 or 1943 my dad - in his tidy RCNVR uniform - posed for a picture at the side of his mother's house on Spring St. In the upper right, atop an odd bit of wood, sits a wee birdhouse that almost didn't make it into the picture. That would have been a shame, in my opinion, because it bears witness to the fact that there may be more than two birdhouse builders in the Harrison family. E.g., Dad, me... maybe Roland, one of the grandfathers I never met, a man who died when Dad was ten years old.

I'll never get to the bottom of it in this lifetime, but for the time being I'll add wee houses atop my own as a salute to the slim possibility that I'm a part of - and continuing - an interesting, rewarding family tradition.

Photos by GH

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