Embarking on a Boarding House

CBS Sunday Morning recently aired a segment on the sharing economy that referenced boarding houses. My great-grandmother and great-grandfather ran a boarding house in Sharon, Pennsylvania. They’re the two adults dressed in white in the photo above—my great-aunt Catherine is the one with the hand-on-hip-and-hat pose. My grandma is directly below her. The men surrounding them lived in the boarding house and worked in the nearby steel mill. I’ve had this photo for ages, but watching the segment triggered an interest to learn more about the stoic faces, hats, and lives of its subjects. Did the space smell like dust, cabbages, and mamaliga? What did they hear or feel?

Here’s to exploring more this summer.

Today, find a family photo. Make a collage, write a poem or some prose, paint a scene. Tell the story behind  the image. Fiction or nonfiction, abstract or representational. Follow this further in your Destination Journal.