If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that I have lived in many houses in my life. My last count was over thirty. One of my favorites was a stone Cape Cod on South 24th Street in Allentown.
One of the many reasons I liked it was because it had many interesting features. It starts with a winding sidewalk up to the front door. Inside there was a beautiful fireplace with built in bookcases on either side. It had a beautiful slate floored sunroom with Jalousie windows that overlooked a quiet, secluded back yard. Upstairs, one of the bedrooms had built in drawers and bookcases. There was an outdoor deck above the sunroom with a delightful view of the backyard and the neighbors’ backyards. Sounds like a lovely home, right?
It was a lovely home. Indeed! But it had one feature that my wife and I both found particularly hideous. The back panels of the bookcases that bounded the fireplace were made of translucent glass. So far so good. There was a light switch nearby that illuminated those glass panels with the bright colors of the rainbow! Imagine a nice quiet, romantic evening at home, on the sofa, with bright rainbow lights staring back at you. Nah, a definite mood killer.
We did some updating to that home. The first thing we did was remove the switch and the back panels of the bookcase. We took out the translucent glass and replaced it with good old drywall and painted it a muted white. That was more our style. The rainbow lights are still there behind the drywall. No one would be the wiser.
I drive by that house on occasion. I know there is a lovely lesbian couple living there now. They proudly fly the rainbow flag off the front porch of the house. If only they knew what was behind their fireplace bookcases! I’ve often thought of stopping off and telling them the story, assuming they would get a good laugh out of it. But I think the story of the rainbow bookcases will remain a secret between me, my ex-wife, and, of course, all of you.
A Semi-retired Kind of Life 