Skater's Story "And [there were] people on the ice -- ice skating. [There were] big, great draft horses ... they were pulling, you know, cleaning the ice [doing whatever draft horses do on the ice]. There was this little girl, I'll say about 5 or 6 and she's ... you know skating and I'm standing in line; they had the movie running because the library wants to close so they had the movie running while he is selling books or signing things or whatever. I'm in line to buy a book and all of a sudden I hear a voice behind me that says 'That's me!' and I turned around and I said 'That's you skating on the ice?' It was an older ... very old woman ... and she said 'Yes!' I said 'Did you live there?' and she said 'Yes' and I said 'Well I live there now' and well at that (I said) 'Would you like to come and visit sometime?' and she said 'When?!' So the next day she came over with two of her daughters, her son, her son's wife, and they came over and we had tea and she told me everything about when she was young. That she had servants, and they had young girls who would come in from 'I'll show you the rooms after.' Come in from the farms and they would hire that as you know maids or whatever and they got to go to school because they came into the city. They live in those rooms upstairs, and there was a little bathroom and in fact it is the closet now. And I can still see the tank of the toilet, you know, and the old wall. It's not there, and ah, so she came home and she told the life stories."
- Mrs. Cheri Di Renzo |
Mrs. Di Renzo went to the Neenah Public Library to listen to a speech, and she met Kate Brehm, daughter of Mabel Kimberly Gilbert and A. C. Gilbert, the original owners of the Albert C. Gilbert House prior to the Di Renzos, is in the quote to the left.
|
Wedding Memory
"Well we had a party for our wedding and we had a big tent out there and we had a trio of musicians out here (the patio) and it was a beautiful day. It started out it rained in the morning. And the day before that they were cleaning up everything; the gardeners and things like that pulled down the ivy on the wall -- there's ivy climbing up the wall and I woke up the next morning, the day of the party, and I thought gee the light is funny in here. My bed room because the sun was reflecting off the stucco instead of (the) leaves. The leaves were gone. And I found out the guy who did was so afraid to tell me, so he didn't. So everything was just ... and it had been smelling you know, sometimes the lake smell ... I was thinking oh don't smell, don't rain, don't and it was beautiful day. By the time the afternoon came around it was a beautiful day, but it started out [not so great] ... we had about a hundred and fifty people here [on the dance floor outside]."
- Mrs Cheri Di Renzo |
This is one of Mrs. Di Renzo's favorite memory of this house.
|
|
Information via interview with Mrs. Cheri Di Renzo
Ice Skates: http://www.lpzoo.org/sites/default/files/images/events/iceskates_barnwall_banner.jpg
Wedding: http://www.weddingvendors.com/vendor-photos/8005/08763916a307336464e21a33bcdf96f1.jpg
Ice Skates: http://www.lpzoo.org/sites/default/files/images/events/iceskates_barnwall_banner.jpg
Wedding: http://www.weddingvendors.com/vendor-photos/8005/08763916a307336464e21a33bcdf96f1.jpg