Grandmother's cozy house on English Street was a home of valuable things, fragile and antique things, things of beauty. Adjacent to the den (where the family watched TV) was her living room. I say it was "hers" because Granddad never really set foot in there for fear he might break something - or perhaps that fear belonged to Grandmother in the first place.
The wood floor was covered with a thin, dark-blue carpet that had a marble-like pattern. In the room, there was an antique sofa and two or three antique chairs with intricately decorated upholstery set against the mahogany wood borders of their frames exposed at the edges. There was also a finely polished round end table that supported a beautiful bowl-shaped vase, the color of the carpet with an image painted on the front side. Numerous other ceramic objects were setting decoratively upon two marble-top tables.
The centerpiece of this room was, of course, the Baldwin baby-grand piano.* It was situated in the corner of the room, facing away from the window which offered a view out into the front yard. And there I spent many an afternoon practicing scales and J. S. Bach and Clementi sonatinas. To the left of the piano stood a tall floor lamp. It's white glass dish-like "shade" faced upward, giving ample light to the room so that I could see clearly the sheet music as I practiced.
This room was called "the living room", though I'm not sure how much actual living had taken place within its four walls. It's one of those places you might revere, kind of like an altar where some great sacrifice had once been made. If one dare to sit on the sofa or chairs, one did so with extreme caution.
The wood floor was covered with a thin, dark-blue carpet that had a marble-like pattern. In the room, there was an antique sofa and two or three antique chairs with intricately decorated upholstery set against the mahogany wood borders of their frames exposed at the edges. There was also a finely polished round end table that supported a beautiful bowl-shaped vase, the color of the carpet with an image painted on the front side. Numerous other ceramic objects were setting decoratively upon two marble-top tables.
The centerpiece of this room was, of course, the Baldwin baby-grand piano.* It was situated in the corner of the room, facing away from the window which offered a view out into the front yard. And there I spent many an afternoon practicing scales and J. S. Bach and Clementi sonatinas. To the left of the piano stood a tall floor lamp. It's white glass dish-like "shade" faced upward, giving ample light to the room so that I could see clearly the sheet music as I practiced.
This room was called "the living room", though I'm not sure how much actual living had taken place within its four walls. It's one of those places you might revere, kind of like an altar where some great sacrifice had once been made. If one dare to sit on the sofa or chairs, one did so with extreme caution.