Friday, August 10, 2012

Hidden Places and Secret Spaces

My father loved hidden things: boxes with hidden locks, secret drawers in furniture, hidden cubbies in unlikely places…
            I’d known about his fascination with boxes for quite some time. He loved the way the fit together, especially those with dovetailed joints. I found out about his interest in hidden locks when I accidentally bought him a box for Christmas that had one. I’d bought it for the beauty of the wood; he enjoyed learning how to open it.
            Later, when Hubby and I had had our adventure in the world and limped back home to raise our two children, our financial situation forced us to settle in a very small house. Our older daughter wound up with the smallest of the three bedrooms. In my search to maximize the space, I found a picture in a magazine of a twin bed built over a double row of drawers and with bookcases rising up from the side against the wall. It was perfect.
            I showed the picture to my father, explaining why I felt Katriena needed it. He and Hubby drew up a plan, bought wood, and went to work. It was perfect: six dresser-like drawers in front and a door in the back that wasn’t included in the model bed where long objects could be stored. I don’t remember what Katriena had that made him think she needed that. Then he pulled one of the top drawers completely out to reveal a secret drawer where Katriena could store things she didn’t want just everyone to be able to find.
            But my father’s real masterpiece was the house on the lake. My mother had always wanted to live on a lake, and my father’s goal in life was to give her everything she wanted. (She really didn’t ask for much, to tell the truth.) They’d bought the lot several years earlier and used the garage/cabin on weekends. Then when he retired, they started the house.
            They’d built a house together before—the house I grew up in—all by themselves. They made a few mistakes, but nothing most people ever noticed. This time, at the age of 60, my father wisely decided to hire a little help. He had a man to dig the foundation and help laying it and a team to install the sheetrock, and my teenaged nephew spent the summer with him, learning how to build.
            My father had read that most houses destroyed by tornadoes are wrecked because the tornado lifts the roof, usually attached to the frame only with a few nails. (They call it toe-nailing, I believe). So he bolted the frame to the foundation, then bolted steel straps to the top of the frame and over the roof trusses. Going to take a Class 5 to blow that baby down. But just in case, in the hall he put a trapdoor that led down to the crawl space, which was plastic lined to keep it clean and dry. All hidden.
            Then he decided the house needed secret hiding places—I was never sure for what, since they had very little worth stealing.  Nevertheless, he built them—not in the living room or bedroom, where most thieves would look, but in the bathroom. One, I believe, was behind a built-in magazine rack. The location of the other was so funny that I remember it well—behind the recess in the wall that held the toilet tissue.
            I wonder still if the people who live in that house now have found all the secret places and hidden safety features. As for the bed, it still has a place in my home. My granddaughter sleeps in it when she comes to visit, but the hidden drawer is empty. I, too, have very little anyone would want to steal—even my small amount of jewelry has mostly sentimental value. But I can almost hear my dad shouting across the vale, “Put it in that drawer! Don’t you know that’s what it’s for?”


11 comments:

  1. This is great!

    When I was about twelve my mom came home with an old antique dresser and high chest of drawers. Birds-eye maple veneer. In the front, curved molding just at the edge of the top - open the top drawer below - reach in and up under the top, push the wooden button - a hidden "document drawer" pops out. I believe she still has that dresser in a spare bedroom.

    I've always loved boxes in general, well made wooden ones at least. I used to know guys in the Oregon Woodworkers Guild that were specialist box makers. That's all they make, and they make some fine ones.

    What's that German word - Wunderkammer? a cabinet of curiosities...

    Finally, I refer to the wonderously evocative and melancholy boxes made by the AI in the low orbit Villa Straylight, William Gibson's Neuromancer.

    Just some of what this post lead me to think of.

    Sounds like your father was quite the craftsman and maker of wunderkammers himself.

    Thanks much for sharing this, Angela

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    1. Love the directions your thoughts take. I'd never have thought of these things myself, but one of the wonders of writing is that our words take on new lives when others read them.

      I'd never heard that German word, but I'll remember it.

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  2. Excellent writing and tale. Very enjoyable and enlightening. I loved it.

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  3. I love this story. I like the idea of hidden drawers, not the hidden locks so much! A drawer behind a drawer is always classic and cool.
    I like your dad. ♥

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    1. He was an interesting person--a real study in opposing forces.

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  4. Your dad sounds like my kinda architect. :) When I was young I told myself that wherever I lived would have a secret passageway to a cozy nook-type area that I could read and do my own thing in peace. :) Great story!

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    1. A friend of mine made a bookcase that hid a door to an apartment he'd built in the garage for his daughter. I fell in love with that bookcase. Would love to have one that hid just a small room.

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  5. what a COOL POP you had!!!!!! Oh i wonder if they do know about the hidden room, never will know. Can you write them and let them know? aHHH we all need a hiding place :0)

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    1. I've often thought about contacting them, but I don't know who lives there now, can't remember the address, and can't even drive by and tell them, because it's gated. Someday, someone will discover all the little hidey holes and wonder what kind of weirdo built that house. : - )

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  6. This made me smile from start to finish. What a cool dad you had!

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