Enchanting

I realized today, that I am still young enough to be in awe of things. Since I am still in New England, my son and daughter-in-law planned a special day for me. They took me to see The Enchanted Village. It is a display from the 1940's that was originally set up in the Jordan Marsh department store. It was created by a Bavarian craftsman and originally comprised of 28 village vignettes. In 1972, the display was packed up and shuffled around from place to place. At one point, Macy's owned it. A few years ago, Jordan's Furniture, who is not related to Jordan Marsh,  bought the display and recreated the exhibit. The remaining display contains 18 of the original scenes and 59 movable characters. When I walked in to the warehouse to see it, I was amazed. It was not at all what I had expected. It was a life size village with all of the original stores, filled with the original goods.There was the barber shop, the post office, the hat store, the bakery, the candy shop, the town square and even a living room with children sitting around the fireplace, listening to a story. There were motorized mannequins still dressed in the same clothes from the 1940's. You could see the unmistakable age of the clothes. I remember wearing those same coats when I was a child. The mannequins were porcelain dolls, masterfully carved and lifelike. When I looked into their eyes, as they moved and turned, it was almost eerie. I could envision them coming to life each night after the display closed. To add to the beauty, it was snowing soap bubbles. As I moved from shop to shop, all I could repeat was "wow". I stood there like a child, soaking in all of the magic of the holiday village.