“american upbeat”(Murphy’s)

Out in the rolling hills of South East Pennsylvania, out in Weyth Country, was a house, set back off the highway that a guy named Murphy built. It was a three bedroom ranch, with a three car garage, one bay of the garage with a pit. Between the garage and the house, was a large office, with a large porch and a basement below. The property was better than three acres, set back against a hillside of woods, with a creek running through a pasture. My old friend had bought this place, after selling his barn out on 5 points. Mo had built this barn out of the dust of a structure from the Early Seventeenth Hundreds. He had a little trouble at school in Georgia, and was asked to leave. His Father, Al wasn’t too happy about this. Al was a tough, big, interesting man. In the war he was a tank commander in Italy. After the war, he kept most of his unit together, going to work in the photographic division at DuPont. He set up plants all over the world to manufacture the first variable contrast photo paper, Du Pont Varalure. The paper I use today comes from one of the factories, Al built in Croatia. The Morrison’s are Scott. I’ve said that Al was big, Mo was even bigger! Not to much got in the way of either of these men. Al was pretty disgusted with Craig comming home and just wanted him to be doing something. I guess it all started with some old, late 60s style daydreaming. Looking at where this old barn stood, you noticed its North Side, was built into the hillside. These old barns, they built em smart. With His parents house about 100 yards away, it could create some space. There was always a gang hanging, easily motivated. There were some big problems to over come, the biggest, a bolder in the very center of the ground floor, buried. Digging, chipping, smacking, as impossible as it seemed, Mo was not deterred. Not much ever got in his way! The structure had thick stone walls at the base, with a lot of the original timbers still in good shape. This being a barn, the joist for the floor above were logs, planed flat across the top. This was close to mushroom country. At that time the farmers were building modern more efficient houses for there crops. Tearing those old houses down, was a lot more work for those farmers, and when Craig approached them, asking if he could tear them down, and haul the wood, they thought he came from Heaven! Mo had got a job at Cheyney State saved some money and bought an old flat bed truck to haul the Cypress from the old mushroom houses. He did every thing with the wood from those farmers. Cypress……Termites hate it, it loves water, it grows in water. He got timbers for the structure, he got planks for the floor, for his paneling he took that weathered cypress, sand blasted, wire brushed, and silvered it, the hard grain raised in relief against the softer area of the plank. Black iron #10 cut nails attached the planks to the frame If there was stone on the outside there was wood on the inside. With wood on the outside,on the inside you have stone, all of this with an air space between. The floors were finished with linseed oil, giving them a warm red glow. The wall panels were left alone,left to age. He cut his own trim from the Cypress, for both the inside, and outside, using various stains creating subtle accents. This barn was a show house, and it smelled good to. He had cabinets made for the kitchen, for the bathroom he made his own. The kitchen and bathroom floors were random black slate, this looked good with the pedestal and the cast claw foot tub. When he finished the barn, he loved soaking in that tub. The bedrooms were small, but he framed the beds in, with storage below. Corean counters, and state of the art appliances finished off the kitchen. The entire place, up stairs and down stairs, well heated by a pot belly stove. There’s a lot of stories of times in that barn. Later. I’m trying to get to Murphy’s. His Mom and Dad were getting old, they wanted a home a little easier to care for. They had about 6 acres out on 5 points, and the deal was for it all. The buyer wouldn’t split off the land where craigs home stood, they wanted the barn.——— ———————————-
When you get into one of these old structures, you can see, the people who built them, cared. Everything. Is square, everything is level. Craig was about to meet Murphy. He took the money his Father gave him for the barn and —- have you ever heard of “MURPHYS LAW? He bought the house that Murphy built