When I was little, my grandmother cleverly came up with the following game to keep an eye on me, my brother and our friends, but at the same time not to disturb her daily activities and to have a quiet routine during the holidays when she had to take care of us:
Under her guidance, we turned into "houses" large boxes that had windows cut out, on which we put a curtain, and the opening of the box was turned so that it served as an entrance.
Apart from that, we had smaller boxes in which we arranged our doll's "houses". Each box was divided into separate "rooms" and the dolls had their own bedrooms, kitchens and such. Dolls that we sewed clothes for to change their clothes every day. The fabrics came from scraps of clothes that my grandmother used to sew, as well as those that one of our friends' grandmother used to sew.
All these cartons, carton within carton, were placed in the glazed veranda of the house, and so we all, under my grandmother's idea, had built a magical little world. A fairytale world hidden inside the real world.
Therefore, like any other person, when I see such a decorated imitation of a room (shown in the pictures), I instinctively think of something familiar, namely the fictional houses of my childhood.
You can imagine that I'm not talking about real houses, because we didn't have the means to make them like that, but with a certain amount of imagination and with daily efforts, we turned them into our magical space.
I recently saw a fully furnished room in a mall. It was a bedroom set behind a display case. It was obviously a furniture company's showroom, but I felt special at the sight of it. Memories immediately flooded my mind. You know how the subconscious works - with images, smells and sensations. This time it was just images.
And something else - it was something in something again, a room in a room. And let me tell you, that seems pretty peculiar to me. It's like when I was explaining to you about the tomb replica that was placed in a museum and you could walk inside. Okay, but this tomb is also set in an enclosed space.
You know what I'm talking about, maybe. People say you shouldn't walk under a ladder leaning against a house. Because the trinity between the ladder, the ground and the house will be broken. But when you go into a room that's in a room, I don't know what's being violated. But surely something is broken. 🤔
Well, these are my jumbled thoughts today, intertwined with my childhood memories, accompanied by the music of my favorite band in the background. I rarely get to write while listening to music, but today I especially need this music to complement the setting and get me out of something I'm not sure I want to get out of. Well, you see how messed up it is. 😃
Pictures were taken at a shopping center and this premises, an imitation of a room, is a sort of canteen where people can eat the food bought from a food stand.
Copyright: @soulsdetour
 | Soul's Detour is a project started by me years ago when I had a blog about historical and not so popular tourist destinations in Eastern Belgium, West Germany and Luxembourg. Nowadays, this blog no longer exists, but I'm still here - passionate about architecture, art and mysteries and eager to share my discoveries and point of view with you. |
