Greenville, Mother, and Connemara Farms --
The Carl Sandburg Home

This is a picture-logue of our Thanksgiving visit to Greenville, SC in November, 1998. Helen and Fred told us that Mom was really failing (she has been falling several times a week) so we decided we should take this nice long weekend to get down here for a visit. These are the pictures we took. But it was clear after we helped her into the wheel chair that her bones were strong and even though she falls a lot, she still seems to remain hale and hearty. Her hair is still thick and beautiful. When we left, she said to Elaine, "You are very beautiful." I agree!

Mom was confused with our visit and we probably did not succeed in really telling her who we were. It was difficult to get her to really smile, especially when the camera was pointed toward her.

The next day, we all piled into the Mercedes and drove up to Flat Rock, N.C. to visit the Carl Sandburg home. Above you can see the house above a pretty lake.

This is a 10x telephoto picture of the house pictured on the left. It was a very pretty day with temps in the 60's.

Mrs. Sandburg was very interested in the breeding of goats. There are still goats living at the Sandburg estate.

This is the Sandburg barn.

Elaine and Helen struck up a conversation with this goat.

It was a particularly nasty tempered Nubian goat.

We were told later that this goat was isolated because he is looking for girl goats and breeding requires control.

This is a very nice park ranger named Pat Smith who was carrying a tiny newborn goat named Tasle Marie.

Tasle Marie was very cuddly and was only 2 1/2 weeks old. I hope she gets to see her picture on the net.

The Sandburg house was interesting. It was donated to the park service immediately after his death in 1967. All the contents were left "as is" including the music on the piano.

Carl Sandburg was rather odd in that he preferred orange crates to furniture. He moved to this house when he was 67 and very well to do, and could have afforded more.

It was popular at that time to have facial masks made. This is a facial mask of Lincoln, the person whom he wrote about for much of his life. His house still contains the 14,000 books in his personal library. The books still contain the bookmarks that prove that he actually read them.

This is his dining room with many of his books.

This is Mrs. Sandburg's study, very neat and organized.

This is Carl Sandburg's study where he answered his mail, and did the routine work a writer has to deal with.

This is a facial mask of Carl Sandburg himself, resting between his beloved books.

And upstairs, roped off, is his private space where he did virtually all his writing. It was a disorganized space and he preferred it that way. I think he is my hero!

After the pleasant visit, we walked down the path, over the bridge to our car. This is another picture of the beautiful placid lake in front of the Sandburg house.

If you want to learn more about this national park, look at http://www.nps/carl

If you have any comments, write us .