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There Is Something about the East Coast
- Southern Illinois University Press
- Chapter
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38 There Is Something about the East Coast Perhaps it is the finish in mahogany or the tufted leather and embroidered bedding, refuge on frosty autumn apple-picking evenings. The sage glow from the banker’s lamp or the ironwork on the bronze chandelier above, glow recessed on a home library with scents of old. The honey pine table with its distressed surface, beveled top and smoothly-turned legs, the center of generations—a family heirloom. Or the pattern on the English-fabric rugs, its floral curves twisting in continuum, mimicking the pageantry of family genealogies. The vase in high-fired earthenware, with its Russet rosebuds trimmed fresh from the garden, where grandchildren play in the Bedouin patterns of green. Or the tulip stemware, used when equally dashing guests arrive in the evening and tell elegant hand-loomed adventures. There is something about the East Coast— a hot cranberry toddy scented with sticks of cinnamon, always steaming, always burning my tongue. ...