the old bank on the square

The old bank on the village square has seen better days.

Days when the customers dressed up to do business; hat, bow-tie, and spats. Days when ladies skirts swished through the heavy doors and high-button shoes tip-tapped across the floors.

Those were the times of hand-written receipts, every penny counting for something, and a quaint dose of formality in each transaction.

Little children who accompanied their parents to the bank looked on with awe as the bank manager regally conveyed leather pouches of cold, hard cash in and out of the iron vault.

The iron vault was likely NOT painted lipstick red at the time.

Since those days of yore, the old bank on the square became the village post office. The townsfolk did their financial business a few doors down, on the corner where the present bank stands. But they brought their letters and packages here to be weighed and stamped.

Stamps were cheaper back then, I'll betcha.

In the early 1960's, a more modern post office was built around the corner behind the present Hometown Cafe. The old bank on the village square then became a dwelling.

I use the term dwelling in order to harken to shades of ancient history.
As in a cave-dwelling. Where cavemen munched greasy chicken over their plastic TV dinner trays and then threw the bones over their shoulders.

Let me not be too hasty in my assessment of the humans over the years who have inhabited the old bank on the square. Some of them were probably ordinary folks who took their garbage out.

Instead of close-ups of nasty debris, I bring you a view from the inside front door looking out across the square. The lace curtain gives it a romantic edge to the scene -which makes me want to carry that curtain throughout the entire house and peek at all the rooms through its lacy haze.

The old bank will be undergoing a transformation in the days and weeks to come. From where things stand, it can only get better. And maybe, just MAYBE we will find a sack of money in one of the walls.

The eternal optimist signs off for now.