Hunters whose life depended on the ability to follow their prey made the first travelling homes. Easy to set up and quick to dissemble when the game has moved on.
Elsewhere, modifications were being made to make sure that enemies were kept out as well. Hence: moats and drawbridges.
Since modern times we have seen many styles emerge
And now even the "micro home" is gaining popularity. A minimalist's dream with most of them no larger than 100-400 square feet inside.
A huge shift from the LA sprawling Mansion filled with "stuff" to a small snug personalized space with only the barest minimum of possessions.
My HOME has definitely morphed through the years, as well.
Perhaps yours has, too.
I refer to them as shells. Like Anne Lindberg's "Gift From the Sea", it seems my shell has changed throughout my 56 years to suit my needs and the needs of my family in earlier years. From a 1930's vintage on Beville Avenue (my birth home) in Indianapolis a whose diamond shaped window and small Concord grape arbour in the back held my very earliest memory. I was maybe 2 at the time.
To the typical 1960 ranch with free-standing garage where I would finish growing up in "The Burbs". A collection of other similar but not identical homes grouped together and connected by side streets...a place to ride bicycles and play with the neighbour kids (who also had to come in at night as soon as the street-lamp came on). We drank directly out of the hose. Had wooden screen doors to slam. Rode bikes everywhere (without helmets) and somehow lived to tell the tale. Well, most of us.
My first real HOME of my own was a rented shotgun half-double in a rather seedy part of town. But it was HOME. That primal urge that exists in all creatures. A dog that charges the fence when you come too near.
The moment you select a space and call it MINE.
Since that first small shotgun house I have lived in (no particular order), various apartments, small towns, near ghost-towns (5 families made up the entire town), in a 19 foot travel trailer, in a modular ranch house, in a two story Victorian, in a small lake-home, in a brick ranch house, in a 110 year old wood cottage where indoor plumbing was an afterthought, in a single-wide trailer with a push-out and a bay window, in a motel once, in a double wide in a trailer park and now...my final home
The Den.
615 square feet of HOME!
Actually an apartment. Drywall and wood and brick it is one of four units in my building. Through the years I have owned (bought...or was paying for) three homes. Two on land contracts and one with my ex-husband years ago with a mortgage.
Yet this Den...my last, feels as much MINE as any of those I shared with a bank or land-owner. Maybe more so. I no longer have to deal with mowing the grass...although there is a huge bit of it and mature trees out my patio door. All I need worry myself with is what plants and flowers I want to plant during the season. No one is going to sell it out from under me. As long as I pay rent it is mine. They don't bother me and I don't bother them.Is it owned by a nameless, faceless corporation? Sure. But everyone in the immediate office is wonderful and maintenance is friendly, helpful and prompt.
If there are Plumbing, Air-con or Furnace malfunctions/concerns...or if a stove or refrigerator needs replacing...well it is not my (financial or physical) problem. A quick call to maintenance sets things right almost immediately.
It would not have been feasible or ideal, of course, when the family was young and growing...but it is perfect for me independently.
On the transit line (city route) so that between the transit and the local cab service (and friends & family) I can get anywhere I need/want to go.
Home: not just a physical structure...but a concept.
Tomorrow we will continue with the "concept" of home.
