Last week I featured a post on cast iron wood stoves from Black Creek Pioneer Village, and this week I have another door I discovered while I was there.
This semi-underground cold storage area would have been a place of nightmares for me as a kid. Come to think of it, if I had discovered any kind of creepy-crawly in there, I would likely have been off running – and probably screaming along the way.
These storage cellars would have been important for the early pioneers to preserve apples, potatoes etc over the long Canadian winters.
However, this cellar also reminded me of another storage place from my own “pioneer past” … a old wooden barn with a dirt floor that used to stand on my parent’s property up until about 20 years ago. It had the same dark, creepy feeling with an undercurrent of I-don’t-really-want-to-go-in-there.
This old barn was used by my dad for storing his unending supply of stuff-I-might-need-someday … an affliction suffered by most survivors of the 1930’s and the Great Depression.
Originally, the barn was actually used to house chickens that my grandmother kept and later a horse used for grocery deliveries. Of course, both were long gone by the time I came along. I knew it only as a creepy black hole of horror.
I used to cringe every time one of my parents sent me to the barn to look for something. Regardless of whatever it might have been, I never found it … possibly because I never ventured further than the door frame.
… and here I was on a warm sunny day at the Pioneer Village, peering carefully from the door frame into a cold storage cellar that unexpectedly drudged up old memories.
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Thursday Doors is a weekly photo feature hosted by Norm 2.0.
[…] This week for Thursday Doors, I want to feature “open doors” as my theme. An open door can be welcoming and seems to invite you in to stay a while. Or it can be a little creepy like last week’s cold storage door. […]
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We had a cellar under the house when I was growing up. I had much the same reaction to being sent down there. [shudder]
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So there it is … children all over the world do not like being sent into dark dingy places where creepies could be lurking.
What more evidence do we need that we are all basically the same? 🙂
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I’ll go you one better Joanne. My grandparents had a tiny cellar for food storage that was not bricked but had dirt floors and walls. In the hallway just outside the kitchen there was a rug-covered trap door with a tiny handmade ladder that dropped down into that gaping maw. At least that’s what this sissy city kid thought at the time. I haven’t had therapy, but I probably needed it after a few trips down there. ~James
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Yikers! A handmade ladder dropping into what’s basically a dirt hole?!!
No – no potential for nightmares in this scenario
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Old memories of a creepy, packed to the rafters barn isn’t a positive result of this original and never featured before cellar door. I remember my grandparent’s double cellar doors, we usually never saw them unlocked but once at age 7, Grandpa Mattson asked me to accompany him on a black cherry jam and maple syrup jug “run.” Going down those stairs, smelling the musty scent and chilling cold made me rather excited that I was the oldest, allowed to “see” what was behind the forbidden doors, Joanne. Thank you for sharing about the cold storage area and your barn storage story, too. 🙂 It brought forth a “rite of passage” story from me.
Hope you are having a fantastic Fourth of July!
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Memories are triggered in the oddest ways 🙂 Love your story and especially that you were excited rather than scared!
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Love the history, the photos, and your story of going into that old barn
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Thanks 🙂
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Fantastic doors, Joanne. We had a very small cellar beneath our house when I was a child. I only ever went down there once, to fetch a stone bottle of Ginger Beer. I got so scared that I’ve never been able to drink it since. 🙂
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It seems children all over the world have a universal fear of cellars!!
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Fear is such a powerful weapon, even when it is self inflicted. I never had barns or basements but we had an abandoned house in the field behind us. One day when I was looking for my cat I ventured out there, walking around the house, calling my cat’s name. I swear my eight year old eyes saw the curtains move a few inch like someone was watching me. The second time around, it was the end of a rifle peeking out. It scared me enough to slowly back away and leave. I didn’t go into that area of the field again until they tore the house down.
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Holy Cow!! I would have had a cow! Suddenly spiders aren’t sounding so bad after all
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I now wonder if I really saw a rifle or imagined it…at the time it was real and that was good enough for me.
I only once befriended a spider. It was an ugly hideous looking thing and quite large. It would create this giant web in the agapanthus out side my kitchen windows. I never saw it move…it just sat there making its presence know…eventually I started having a bit of admiration for it and would look for it every morning. The only change I made in my life is that I never did any gardening in that bed while he was here. When he would leave, I’d clean the dead leaves and debris like crazy and wait for him to return again the next year.
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I think all sensible people should have an aversion to basements – we’ve all shouted at the heroine of a horror film, ‘No! Don’t go down there!!!’
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… and she NEVER listens!
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My wife shares the same affliction. Not the “I-don’t-really-want-to-go-in-there” one, but the “stuff-I-might-need-someday” one. I think we need one of these cellars! 🙂
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… and you just moved!! The packing and unpacking must have been brutal!
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We still have a lot of cartons we haven’t unpacked yet. Both of us.
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oops.
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I do find that door and cellar very interesting but would be hesitant to enter. Great to hear your stories about your childhood barn too 💕
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thank you 🙂
I’ve discovered through this post that my aversion to dark enclosed places and lurking bugs is widely shared by others!
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I really liked seeing the bins in the cellar – and wondered how they stored the goodies – so this was nice . and laughing at the family barn and how you worded things… and yes, the Great Depression left an impression….
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I admit, I was surprised when I looked inside the cellar. I was expecting a dirt floor – like my dad’s old barn – and instead found a nice stone floor. In addition, the bins hinted at organization and structure to their storage … a lesson my dad skipped somewhere along the line 😉
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Ha – so your dad skipped those lessons? Well my mother n law got them juts fine – ahem – maybe too much!
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haha!! That would be my sister-in-law. She’s practically legend 😉
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😉
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The days of cold storage were a lot simpler as well as being harder. Love your doors. 🙂
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Thanks Judy. It’s funny that as I get older, I’m discovering a longing for the ‘simpler’ times. We tend to think it was simpler … but in so many ways, it wasn’t really 🙂
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I’m laughing, Joanne, as I see you just arrived at my blog as I arrived at yours…and we’re both doing old doors. Great door minds and all that!! I’d love to have a cellar now for storing food, but when I was growing up, my grandparents had a cellar on their farm house and I was NOT interested in going down there where there were spiders and box elder bug in addition to all the canned goods. 🙂
janet
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That’s funny … we are aligned today 🙂
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Does that mean we’re stars? 🙂
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Of course we are! Shine on 🙂
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Lovely memories. I understand that save everything mentality. I want to venture beyond the doors as I am not bothered by creepy crawlies or small places.
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I guess I saw it in my dad and now I’m the polar opposite … and *nope* to both bugs and small places. Ugh.
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I must say, if there was a rat, I would scream. I have trouble getting rid of things, but I don’t save screws, nails, and such as my father did. The Great Depression was definitely memorable for our parents.
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I’d be screaming with you!!!
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The stuff of nightmares and scary movies. Great door post!
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For sure, scary movies. I think most of my nightmares have their origins from a scary movie.
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I love the doors to the cellar and the stones- but would not venture there in a hurry!
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Childhood phobias seem to last a lifetime. Couldn’t venture past the doorway.
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I don’t know why, but the cellar and barn reminded me of the Geico commercial…run for the chainsaws!
As a child, I had a fear of the basement for a while. I didn’t want to go down there by myself because of the…you know…ghosts and the possibility that some horrible person was hiding around the corner…the same person that used to hide under my bed.
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Too funny!! I’ve never seen this before 😀
I wasn’t overly fond of the basement either, but the only horrible person hiding around the corner or under my bed was my younger-older brother
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I understand your fear about going into that shed. When I was young we lived in a 100 year old house with a sub-basement in it. That is, the basement had a basement. It was so creepy. Only wish I had a photo of that door to share here. It was huge and heavy with a big old lock on it. *shudder*
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{gasp} … a basement to the basement!! We’re talking serious phobia stuff now!
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I think they make good tornado shelters also. Imagine hiding down there and a twister hits, and all those spiders start spinning around through the air around you.
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GAAAAAAHHH!!!
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Joanne we had many sheds like that on the farm. The funny thing is I loved going in those small quiet places and discovering what was there. Like Tess says I love the way you wove a story in with your door theme. Hoping today is going all right for you. xo
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I’m guessing you weren’t afraid of things like spiders or worse … snakes!
No – I’m a city girl who inexplicably found herself being born and raised in a small town
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Nope I’m happy to pick up either. I’m not keen on mice though which seems kind of odd considering I saw more of those than snakes.
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Funny … mice seem so benign in comparison.
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I know it makes no sense. 🙂
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We never had a root cellar. I was always fascinated about the ones I saw on television when we got in the late 60s.
Nice tie-in between the doors with the story in between. Wonderful, Joanne. ❤ ❤ 😀
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Thanks Tess – I call it random inspiration 😉
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My grandparents had a root cellar also – it gave me the willies as well. I wonder if anyone likes to go down into a cellar.
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I’m starting to think that’s why they fell out of practice. It had nothing to do with the advent of refrigeration, but everything to do with childhood aversion to bugs!
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Lovely photos but I’m like you and would never have gone in to those cellars either. I know what you mean about the creepy crawlies. I’m sitting with an ice pack on my neck at the moment because a huge spider came down from the ceiling in front of my face, about a half an hour ago, and as I tried to run from the room I tripped over the dog and head-butted the door. Fingers crossed I won’t have a neck as stiff as a board in the morning. 😮
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I’m so sorry … but the image of what you just described sent me into hysterical laughter!! … all the more funny because I’ve also managed to hurt myself in the past while trying to escape a spider .. or other such evil creature
I think they secretly laugh at us behind our backs. {Hey Ralph – watch what happens when I drop down in front of her face}
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That’s exactly how this spider acted. I’m not joking, it just hung there and dangled it’s long spindly legs at me, waiting to see my reaction. 😮
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… and that’s why I could never see the movie Arachnophobia. I know what they’re up to and they know I’m on to them!
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I did watch that movie – with a cushion in front of my face the first time. So, I watched it a second time – different cushion, same face. I was trying to desensitize myself. Didn’t work very well. 😮
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hahaha! “Different cushion, same face” 😀
You are braver than I!!
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Oh my, I do apologize for my out burst but this was too funny. I hope your neck feels better. I too have an aversion to spiders. When I was in grade school math class the boy who sat in front of me told me there was a spider in my hair. I immediately got up and shook my head upside down trying to make the spider get out, all the while screaming. When I felt it was a sufficient time to have shaken him out I stood up to see my whole class looking at me, mouths agape.
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I’m sorry, but I had such a laugh reading your comment this morning. Although you must have been terrified at the time, it’s such a funny image – you screaming and shaking your hair in the middle of a class. I would have floored that young lad in the lunch break. 😮
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Oh, if only I had been brave back then, that would have been appropriate. ;D
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I too laughed at the imagery of this scene. How among us won’t have done exactly the same?!! 😀
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I am sure the spiders are all laughing at us!
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I know! Evil little devils.
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That’s a great door Joanne, but it makes me think of creepy crawlies too. We visited family in Virginia every year that had a large farm. It had a few active barns, and several old scary places. No one would go in on their own, but put 2 or 3 cousins together and, well…
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Good grief, yes! The challenge …
I had an older brother who was a prankster. Things never ended well for me
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This is so interesting Joanne! There are a lot of those in NY…not quite the same because they are usually metal double doors that open out to the stairway but still…I guess because so much in NY is built vertically and not so much in NY where there is limited horizontal space and no fear of earthquakes. Anyway, I had kind of taken these foregranted until I went back to NY and my kids commented on them. I remember a lot of them had been converted into rehearsal spaces. I’m sure many others are used for storage and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were people living in some!!
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I didn’t know that about NY. I think I would have been like your kids and wondered about them too.
Space is such a premium in any city – but particularly NY – I wouldn’t be surprised to hear they are used as living spaces either … who knows? maybe vampires really do live among us 😉
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Ha, ha! Well, if they do, they would be in NY for sure. I actually think I remember once when I was rehearsing at one of these studios, that was owned by a friend of mine, that one of our mutual friends was crashing there. Yikes!
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I love that first shot. Growing up in an apartment in the city those farmhouse cold cellars always seemed fascinating to me.
My Grandmother was afflicted with great depression save-everything-just-in-case-itis too. She had a lord knows how many years supply of garbage bag twist-ties (even though she NEVER used them) and she also accumulated quite a pile of those plastic close-tabs from bread bags
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You know … I could actually use a few of those garbage bag twist-ties right now ….
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What a great root cellar ~ perfect spot to cool off on a HOT day.
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That’s true. A hot day would be a perfect time to clean-up the cellar 😉
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We have things called Ice houses on some of the big old estates where they would store ice and snow in the winter packed with insulation, often straw, to last throughout the year. You wouldn’t get me in one of those either, though I guess it would have been too cold for spiders!
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That reminds me of the Ice Box built into the wall of a hill on The Island when I was a kid. It was used for storing food that needed to be kept cold with blocks of ice… although by the time I was a kid, coolers were common and replaced the underground Ice Boxes.
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Great door! While I do not share your aversion to dark and creepy places, my children do. Asking them to enter any matter of outbuildings sets their faces to horrified. They often barter out chores to avoid it. A child in my house might be willing to take on all the other chores if a sibling would go fetch the shovel from the shed. Haha!
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I can relate!! I’m still not thrilled about going even into the garage where spider webs are likely to lurk.
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We all had areas like that when we were kids. I feared our cellar as well. I was the only smart one in our house who knew that something wasn’t right down there. 🙂
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hahaha! That’s a great way of putting exactly how I felt about both the barn and the basement … something wasn’t right down there!!!
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How is the shoulder?
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sigh. I get bored, start doing what I think is easy stuff, apparently over-do it in no time, start hurting like crazy, stop and rest for a while, repeat cycle.
It’s going to be a long 6 weeks.
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Why does that sound familiar?
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I thought it might 😉
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I love the door, and the bins inside the cellar! I always wonder how they kept the bugs er um…creep crawlies out of the onions, potatoes, and other foods they stored? That cellar looks nice and tidy but, I wouldn’t like going in it either, and I’d prop the door open somehow so it couldn’t accidentally close behind me!
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That’s exactly part of my terror!! … being locked inside.
Might be because I had 2 older brothers and one in particular tormented my younger sister and I on a full time basis.
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I always wished I had an older brother. I’m the oldest. I guess I got lucky since I didn’t get tormented or picked on then. 🙂
How are you feeling? Hopefully you’re able to get around, and get yourself bathed, dressed, and make something light to eat, and aren’t in pain! Sending thoughts and keeping you in my prayers. xx
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I am the 4th of 5, so growing up with 2 older brothers was a bit challenging at times. There is a tendency to treat the younger siblings as *insignificant*.
I’m making progress but it is a challenge. I had to be up at 5 am this morning because my husband is going out until later this afternoon. If I didn’t get up early, there would be no one to help me get dressed. Sigh. I predict a nap in my near future 😉
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There’s a nap in mine too! Sweet dreams. 🙂
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You are so funny. Hmmm. Past life?
Great pictures. I could use one of those 🙂
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I often think I would love to have a small farm, grow my own vegetables, maybe a chicken or two.
… then I give myself a reality check.
My small neglected garden survives rather than thrives, and I don’t like getting my hands dirty.
I think I would have made a terrible pioneer 🙂
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I do the reality check too when I think about getting farm animals. We decided to just support the local farmers! 🙂
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I like the sound of the small community you live in 🙂
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😀
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Hmmm, my husband suffers from the affliction of I might need it some day! Perhaps he is from another time! Love this old door Joanne although I share your sentiment about venturing in to these creepy cellars!
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thankfully neither Gilles or I tend to hang onto things. Maybe it’s a holdover from my past 😉
Ironically, I am attracted to old, vaguely-disturbing places … my curiosity isn’t quite as evolved as my sense of horror at *creepy crawlies*
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Yikes, type-o on for granted!!
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