First Person | Features, Jokes and More | A Prairie Home Companion from American Public Media

In Praise of Ticky Tacky
By Nan Corby
April 17, 2008

Look at all the mansions on the hillside,
Marching up and down like generals.
Each one 1,100 square feet in size,
$10 for every square foot. A fortune.
Three bedrooms, one bath, a tiny garage below
Shared with a washing machine.

These are the mansions of my childhood.
Where each family had a home of its own
Thanks to World War II and the GI bill.
Where our grandparents, who lived in apartments,
Came to visit and to play canasta, and eventually, when
Only one was left, to stay.

I remember playing hopscotch on the sidewalk in front.
Or sitting on the 12 square feet of grass gossiping with a friend.
A pajama party on a Saturday night.
Running downstairs to meet my date.
Posing in front of the fake fireplace in my prom dress.
Posing again in my wedding dress.
Inviting guests to my grandmother's 70th birthday party.
And now I am 70.

My great uncle died here.
Then my grandmother,
And finally my mother.
But I don't remember our house
As a house of death, but of life.

This was home.
Where are you going? Home.
Where is your home? Over there.
Going home became going back to my mother's house.
Not in so many words: it was still home.

But no longer. My mother's house is no longer my mother's house.
Because my mother is no longer there.
The house belongs to a different family, a younger family,
With small children, who moved there from a crowded apartment.
And paid far more than $10 a square foot for it.

Whether or not they think of it as a mansion, I don't know.
A song-writer would still label it ticky-tacky.
But it has sheltered four generations of my family,
Four generations of me.
And to me, it is the mansion of my life.

About the author:
Trying to be retired, but it's hard to resist the call back to work "just for this one project." Raised in San Francisco, now living with my husband, a dog, and a cat in Long Beach, CA. Went on the first Prairie Home Companion cruise and loved it. Looking forward to hearing what's up for next year, perhaps. I like traveling, and am fortunate that work takes me to very interesting places: South Africa next on the agenda.