Bring Back the Boarding Houses
A clear solution to today’s problems
Maybe what this country needs is a boarding house revival.
In the very olden days, specifically the century or more ending with the housing boom that followed World War II, the boarding house was everybody’s answer: a home, for a while or a generation, for maiden ladies and traveling salesmen, families on the move but not quite sure where, immigrants and itinerants, students of all ages and inclinations.
Boarding houses were run by couples whose children had grown and left home, by young families in need of extra income, and often by women in the days when few other options existed. Or older people of all types who enjoyed company and had a few spare rooms.
Granted, there was no oversight for health and safety etc; but it was in the boarding house that the citizenry learned manners, handiwork, new trades and how to love — or at least get along with — one’s neighbor. Violations of civility could lead to cold eggs for breakfast.
Memories of these establishments came to me recently at 3 AM, in the form of a song I have certainly not sung for at least 60 or 70 years. There is, I’m sure, some scientific explanation for why I can’t remember what I was talking about at breakfast, but a tune from my college guitar quartet days in 1951…
