Go Fish Galvez

There have been rumblings of revolution if I don’t finish this titillating tale so here goes. (But feel free to forgo the popcorn and Milk Duds—like a Stephen King novel, after a strong beginning, it finishes up rather weakly.)

Lovely tiled hearth

Okay, so here we were, my bro-in-law Ken and me, out back of this old tumble-down “mansion.”

We gained entry to the main house through a rear courtyard, in which we discovered, to our delight, a lovely blue-tiled hearth still in a pristine state. Tile holds up nicely to the onslaught of the elements; stucco not so much.

In the center of the courtyard, beneath a gnarly old live oak, was a two-tiered fountain in matching blue tile. While the tile itself was in surprisingly good shape, the scummy pond water it contained looked to be brewing interesting new life forms of the next epoch. Eek.

Mural of pirate, front wall

Mural of pirate, foot of staircase

At this point, Ken and I split up. He headed for some steps that led up to a rooftop lookout while I tiptoed gingerly into the main house, testing each rotting floorboard as I went.

The interior was an odd maze of smallish-sized rooms. As I made my way slowly toward the front of the house, I suddenly found myself in what must have been the main receiving room and was startled to see, on both the front and rear walls, two colorful, even garish, life-sized frescoes of pirates—wild! Which one, I wondered, was supposed to be that Galveston legend Jean Lafitte? A closer inspection of both paintings revealed their trompe l’oeil intent, as the radius of the archways, door trim, and flooring in the murals were clearly patterned after the interior of the home itself.

A very curious place

Another odd find in this home’s main room was the skeleton of an old upright piano, not upright any more but on its back, never again to entertain guests with a gay tune. Strange.

I meandered through a few more rooms, found what appeared to be a long dining hall and, toward the back of the house, discovered a roofless space that appeared to show evidence of a long-ago fire, with blackened boards at the ceiling line. Another mystery.

So many questions about this place and no answers at all. A project for sure, but for another time. Stay tuned.

Oh, and while I’m at it, this being October 9th, Happy 70th Birthday to John Lennon, my hero of all time. We all still miss you so…