Adventures in Aberdeen: April 2008

Hartford

MTV cribs: Mark Twain

So on Friday Kelli, myself and our friend Rhys went up to Hartford, CT. It wasn't to see the insurance capital of the world, as interesting as that might have been, but to read a dissertation in German....from the 1930s. As if we needed another reason to take a day to go to Hartford, we decided that stopping by Twain's crib would help ease us off of our German dissertation exuberance.

So, here are some pics of Rhys and I at Hartford Seminary.

You may have noticed that Hartford Seminary looks a bit like an elementary school sugar-cube castle, but upon closer examination (namely, by licking it) it was not.

Rhys and I won the kings of the castle game.

Here are some pics of Hartford proper ("proper" being used in the sense of general township and not in the MC Hammer sense - although it could certainly be used either way). Speaking of MC Hammer, and proper, this brings us to our installment of MTV Cribs: Mark Twain.

It is interesting being in the historic regions of the USA, because you finds seeds of our present cultural experience. For instance, what does a hometown Missouri boy do who writes some best sellers and marries rich - he builds a phat crib. This is the main house, that in its time overlooked a valley and a river, and was completed in only 16 months in 1874.

As you can tell, the house is built out of red brick, with differing patterns in the brick. It was designed by the most desired architect of the day, in the town that Twain said: "Of all the beautiful towns, it has been my fortune to see this is the chief.” The house is 11,000 square foot, and has 19 rooms.

Just as any present day rapper who finds himself going from a poor family to the elite and sophisticated realities of the rich, Twain has to make a statement. Not only was the house a very peculiar design, but he hired Tiffanies to come in and do silver and gold stenciling throughout the whole house...all three stories. He furnished the house by taking shopping trips to Venice, Scotland, and elsewhere throughout Europe, and built the house with every technological invention of the day. This included: speaking tubes to the rooms and to the servants quarters, central heat, telephone (he was one of two people in town with one), gas lighting throughout, buzzer system to the servants, and even a battery operated burglar alarm that evidently didn't work so well.

The deck at the top of the house overlooked the river valley below, and was directly off of Twain's favorite room - the pool room. Evidently Mark moved his desk in this room and tried to work while attempting to ignore what he thought was the greatest game every invented.

As you can see, Mark Twain laid the cultural seedbed for what has become an identifying cultural reality for Americans. The rags to riches story is always told from the house that typifies the American dream - absurdly massive, overly ornate, and filled with the most high-tech gadgets of the day. Twain would make Nelly proud.

Milford

Apart from New and North Haven, we have spent most of our time in Connecticut venturing to coffee shops in Milford or Branford. Now... you all know how much we like our coffee; however, these two towns offer much more than a good cup of coffee and a place to study. Here's some pictures to show you why we like Milford...

These two photos picture the same bridge, from different sides

Day Off

Well, it has been a while since I have blogged. It has also been a while since I have done much of anything other than photocopying and reading, so I thought it was time for a break. Kelli and I decided to explore a bit of Connecticut, so I will walk you through our little adventure. Before we start, I would like to add that it was around 82 degrees all day long here, which was a bit of an improvement from the 40s and 50s leading up to it. It looks like Spring is finally here, and it has burst forth into Summer already!

Getting started then, first, we went to Kent, CT - as something of a tribute to our friend Kent.

Kent has a House of Books, which I was inevitably drawn to and incredibly disappointed in - but Kent made up for it with a really cool used book store. I almost bought a book on discipleship from 1835, but decided not to. I would like to note the incredible self-control....(you may use the time provided by this ellipsis to actually make a note if you would like).

Kent reminds me a bit of Door County, for all of you mid-west folks. It was one of those places with great scenery, a lot of art and antique dealers, and some random stuff thrown about. The most random were probably the animal sculptures everywhere, which Kelli and I felt the need to pose with.

In Kent, we went to Stroble's Bakery, and decided to stop for a bite to eat, and see if they would make me their king. They didn't make me their king, but did make us some great soup. For those of you who don't know Strobel lore, the name comes from a town in Austria called Strobl. In order to make this look a lot less awkward when they came stateside, the Strobl clans threw in an "e" arbitrarily - as something of an anti-ebonic move. Some threw the "e" in before the "l", as my forebears, and some after as this particular clan did. On something of a side note off of the already tangential comments being made, rumor has it that "Strobl" meant something like "one whose hair stands on end" (which ironically mine does), but was probably meant to portray something like "town idiot." I think this picture helps represent that.

Look at how proudly I bear the name!

Next, we made our way to Litchfield, or what has become popularly known as vonlichtensteinburgvilletown by the Strobl clan with the "e" before the "l". It was a great little town with some really cool churches. We couldn't find the date on this one, but it doesn't exactly look new.

This was another major church in town and was from 1721. It is still a fully functioning congregational church, which makes me wonder if my boy Johny E(dwards) was every in the pulpit here. But I digress.

All in all it was a much needed break from all of the craziness going on around here. It was interesting as well how much this area reminded us of the highlands. Kind of crazy.