Old Mansions

Economic inequality, that gap between the rich and the struggling, has gotten a lot of attention in recent years as the gap widens with some untoward public consequences.  Even so, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous had its mass audience.  People visit palaces where kings resided all over the world.  In America we have mansions, often monuments to the self as much as places to live and entertain.  Recently I toured one near my own home, not having been there before despite living nearby just shy of forty years.

Nemours is the estate of Alfred I DuPont, one of the largest stockholders of the company that bears his name and at one time its most influential individual.  While he never lost contact with the powder workers he supervised early in his career, he was not above some indulgences.  He collected clocks and played the violin.  His wife collected chairs.  He slept upstairs, entertained lavishly on ground level and created a Mancave for himself in the basement.  He had a swivel chair at his two desks, early versions probably not as good as the ones at my desk.  Two lanes of bowling, one ten pins, one duck pins, with a mini-movie theater occupied one room.  He had two billiard tables, one with pockets, one without.  He liked to hunt and at one time a living area had animal head, reduced to a single bison head over his main desk at the insistence of his last wife.  The rifle collection seemed ordinary, kept in a secure case in the billiards room.  Basically he knew how to pursue his highest level of amusement, the same pleasantries available to anyone else though without the private ownership of the means.

As I tour many of these gilded age homes, and this one in particular, I think about which elements are adaptable to my much more modest means.  What do I like to do?  Cook for sure, entertain not so much.  Sit at my own desk, high priority.  Hunting, not something Jews do.  Fishing, pleasurable but not a destination in itself.  Sleep in comfort, high priority.  Have a pretty yard, yes.  Do heavy work to maintain my pretty yard, no.  Collect vintage anything for the purpose of having it, no.

Mansion tours expose what is possible but they also offer a means of shopping downward to assess the features and set realistic priorities for my own less lofty comforts and indulgences.