Continuing our "Virtual Tour" of Gunthwaite...
Part 2 of 2
"Bev's House"
"Bev's house was an old low white Cape, plain and shutterless, with a gray barn behind it."
This is the present version of the home of Ruth's best friend from high school who was the inspiration for Bev.
There isn't a bog behind this home, but across the road from the house is a lovely lake. Ruth and her best friend used to go swimming there sometimes in the evening after working at Sawyer's Dairy Bar. Usually, though, they swam and tanned at Gilford Beach down the road.
Snowy's House
Finally, we visited the house that Ruth used as her inspiration for Snowy's home.
"She turned at the Emery Street corner, . . . . The street ran alongside the river... Hers was the big square white house with black shutters, on a rise overlooking the river."
Don's brother Kirk lived in this house at the time of our tour, and in honor of our visit, he designed, made, and mounted on the front of the home a plaque which reads, "Snowy's House." That's Jan, Jen, Marney, and Ruth below the sign. Please note that the home is no longer in the MacDougall family (as of August, 2002) so the sign is no longer on the house.
She hung her coat in the coat closet and went upstairs and along the hallway of small braided rugs to her room, a sanctuary where she hid in the evenings . . ." We loved seeing this bedroom at Kirk's house on which Ruth modeled Snowy's room. The view through those windows is out toward the river.
A Visit with Ruth and Don
After the tour we were invited back to Ruth's house and found that she'd dug out all of her old high school memorabilia and spread them out for us to enjoy. There were issues of the high school newspaper--Ruth was the editor, just as was the fictional Snowy. There were yearbooks and photo albums, all carefully labeled, and many of the scenes seemed familiar to us already--we know Snowy's version of those events! We chatted, asked questions, laughed . . . and consumed cans of Moxie that Ruth and Don provided.
