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06:28:2004 Entry: "Ann : Sister Cities"

Sister Cities

Do you ever get a sense that a certain area of a city is akin to a certain area of a different city? It's as if the two cities meet at this spot, or maybe it's just a sense of dejavu. Or maybe it's just a yearning to be back someplace familiar.

I get this feeling often in Madison--certain parts of it are so similar to Fort Collins. One area of Monona Drive reminds me a lot of a certain area of LeMay Avenue. Some parts on the north side of the Isthmus remind me of Northwest Fort Collins. Washington Avenue reminds me of College Avenue, the intersection of First and Washington reminds me of Prospect and College.

I received a emailing from a neighborhood group I subscribe to. It included an excerpt from The Capital Times about a recent meeting concerning what to do with the abandonned Kohl's store and Rayovac building down the street. And when it mentioned the possibility of building an urban grocery store with underground parking, I'll be damned if I didn't feel like I was right back on Mulberry and College with the new Safeway...16 years ago. The intersection of Milwaukee and Washington is the same as Mulberry and College! It all starts to look so familiar...it's the same place, different time. Or is it the same time, but different place? And I'm living on Remington Street, Fort Collins' version of Winnebago/Willy Street.

There were several houses I wanted to live in when I was in Fort Collins. Of course, I knew I never could. There was one house on Remington Street that always fascinated me. It was constructed of red Sandstone that was quarried from the bottom of Horsetooth Reservoir. It had a carved sandstone gargoyle on the roof. It was a very unique design. I wanted to live there so badly. One time a room came up for lease in the house. Stan and I looked into it, not because we wanted to rent one room, but because we wanted to see the inside of the house. We only got a little peak, but the room was beautiful, natural hard wood, fancy doors, and a fireplace. A short time after that, we were looking for a place to rent, and the entire house was available. We knew at over $600 per month at that time, there was no way we could afford it. But we looked into it anyway. It was a stunning, beautiful Victorian, detailed fireplaces, beautiful wood, and just a very, very unique house like noneother. I yearned for that house, but I knew it was too far out of our price range. I loved that house. I wanted good people to rent it, not students who would trash it. I kept it in my dreams.

Although my house is frame, not sandstone, and I have not even one fireplace let alone several, and the gargoyle in our yard is concrete, not an original custom home decoration, I somehow now feel like I got the house, vicariously, in another city. If Milwaukee and Washington is Madison's version of Mulberry and College, and Winnebago Street is Remington, that would put our house just right about where the little Sandstone Gargoyle house is in Fort Collins.

By Ann @ 10:58 PM CST:06:28:04 ..::Link::..