There were a lot of takeaways from the night at the
Litchfield castle, but most striking for me was the rich history and tradition
living in the halls. The game room on first glance was just a sight to behold
at how many trophy animals were displayed, but consider the places the
Litchfield’s went to hunt these animals, the cultural/ecological implications
of the types of animals hunted, and the lengths they went to bring them all the
way back to the Adirondacks And especially consider, as someone pointed out
this weekend, how difficult it must have been to transport all the materials to
build the house when you have only a short window of time until it gets too
cold or snowy.
The history wasn’t just plastered on the walls, but evident
in the way that the residents conducted themselves. They will do anything, it
seems, to preserve tradition and keep it alive for as long as they’re fortunate
enough to live there. They have strict etiquette policies (that were thankfully
loosened this weekend), a living journal that documents major events that
happen at the castle, a reverence for past generations of Litchfield’s, to the
point that they memorialize them with self-portraits kept in pristine
condition.
I was also told that if you break something, you’re not
allowed back in castle. I have respect for their traditions and the way they
maintain the castle, but I feel that there’s a limit where the way that you
live on a day-to-day basis should not be restricted just to preserve history.
In the case of this rule, and how the motto of the castle is “avoiding
progress,” it feels like the Litchfield’s treat the castle as a sort of
collector’s item. It’s been fitted to be at least hospitable, with several
people working around the clock to keep the castle warm and well stocked with
food, but is otherwise practically a museum.
I may be overly critical, but at some point, don’t you think
they could stand to modernize the castle to make it more livable? For example,
the fact that they wouldn’t switch the improperly labeled hot and cold handles
on the sink because, “why bother?” Would they necessarily be sacrificing the
history and tradition?
Interesting post--I also got the impression that tradition was very important to the Litchfields. I remember Peter mentioned at dinner that only the heads of the household got to sit at the heads of the table when the house was used for family functions. I thought the castle was interesting because, even though it has been preserved as a museum, it was also a home. The water bottle says it all: "Avoiding progress for more than 120 years."
ReplyDelete