Anne Lacourrege

Lily’s Great Adventure to Greece

Every house that has been occupied could, if it was able, tell so many tales about folks that lived within its walls. Each house has its own history like a museum with its many artifacts. The house we will focus on was built in the 1800’s by a kind sea captain, Captain Harry, for his little family. His family was June, his wife, and Anne, his daughter. The family had a little puppy named Missy who watched over her family especially when Captain Harry was away. He sailed the seven seas so he could support his family, but he always missed them when he was away. This house seemed to carryover that wonderful family love within its inner walls. Years later a new family moved in, one with a small girl named Lily.

Lily was adventuresome and loved to think of games and new things to do. This new house to the family was a bit isolated by the levee from the main city of New Orleans. Her mom, dad and grandma had a farm surrounding their house that had to be tended to every day. Lily helped as much as she could, but many times she had to play by herself. One day she was playing in the basement of their house when she came across a split in the wall. She started to pull at the tear and found a small chest. She carried it out to her parents, and they broke open the lock. It had many things in the box such as a locket with a family picture, a little Greek doll with a blue dress and a ball and jacks. Lily’s mom said the doll was called a plaggona which was sort of like the Barbie doll of the Ancient Greece. Everything was so well kept even though the house had endured many hurricanes and floods. Lily loved her newly discovered treasures.

That night she was looking at the locket with the family picture in it. Engraved inside was a message “To Anne with all my love Papa”. She really loved the little dog in the picture. Lily wondered about this family as she fell asleep.

The next day Lily’s father wanted to see where Lily found her box. She showed him the wall in the basement in the enclosed utility room. The father started to remove more of the sheetrock only to find more items stuffed in between the wall studs. There were all sorts of information in sealed boxes. The family came together to look at all this information and discovered about the origins of the house. They found out it was built by Captain Harry and that his daughter was the same age as Lily. The papers had drawings from Anne of their trips to faraway places. A lot of the drawings were different places in Greece. Lily was fascinated as she had never gone anywhere outside of New Orleans. All these visions of different places were dancing inside Lily’s head.

As Lily drifted off to sleep that night, her thoughts were all about this family that they had discovered. Suddenly it seemed she heard a little girl’s voice say “Hi, I’m Anne. Want to be my friend”. Lily was thrilled to be able to play with someone, so she said yes. Lily got out of bed and followed Anne to a locked door that suddenly opened. There was a small hidden room that looked like a living room with toys and pictures and furniture. Anne went up to her parents and introduced Lily to them. Anne’s dad seemed large, but very friendly. Turns out that he was Captain Harry. Anne’s mother was very nice and was offering Lily cookies to eat. Lily couldn’t believe that her locket family had come to life.

All around the room were chests where Anne’s mom was packing clothes and such. Lily was confused and asked whether they were going away. Anne said they were going on a big trip with her Papa to see Greece. Every once in a while, Captain Harry would take his family with him on his long voyages, and this was one of those times. Lily wished that she could go with them. In all the flurry of the packing and talking, it suddenly was time to leave for Greece. Lily walked them out to the levee in front of the house and there was a plank to a huge ship in the Mississippi River. Lily asked to come on board the ship, so Captain Harry said it was fine. Before anyone knew it, the ship started out. Lily became frantic as her house got smaller and smaller. Captain Harry sent a pigeon carrier with a message so that Lily’s family would know where she was and that she would be well cared for during their trip. With that off her mind, she relaxed and started to ask all about the ship and about Greece. Anne’s little dog, Missy, loved having Lily there to play with as well. Missy watched over both girls as they walked around the ship.

Seemed like within a few hours, there was the Mediterranean Sea pulling them into a port called Thessaloniki. This was the second largest city of Greece and was the prime port for the northern Greek regions. It was named after the sister of Alexander the Great. It was a great city, but one that had a lot of turmoil. Both Anne and Lily were warned not to venture off the ship. They could see there had been great destruction and they were very sad to see this. Seems in the area there had just been the Greek War of independence and Captain Harry was bringing supplies to try to help the Greek community to recover. Everyone on board was helping unload the supplies. Many of the children were hungry so the ship’s cook started serving meals to all the kids that came aboard. Anne and Lily came up with games to play with the kids. Before anyone knew it, the children were laughing and playing and for a time all problems were forgotten. Finally, it was time for the ship to move on to Athens. The Greek children started to leave the ship. A couple of the little girls gave Anne and Lily each a Greek doll all adorned with Greek traditional clothes. The dolls were beautiful – one had a blue dress and the other had a yellow dress. They didn’t want to take the dolls, but the girls insisted on giving the gifts for all the fun and kindness they showed the Greek kids. With many hugs and sad goodbyes, the ship moved on to the next port.

Athens had more of an inland port where the water was much calmer and bluer than in Thessaloniki. It was absolutely beautiful. Way up on the mountain was the Acropolis. It was stunning and gleaming white like a lighthouse beaconing them to the place. While Captain Harry was handling unloading, Ms. June took the girls on a tour. Lily was amazed at all the whiteness of the statues and buildings. They climbed and climbed until they were by the Acropolis and could see all around the city for miles. Lily just had to ask how everything was kept so white. Ms. June laughed and said actually this was all full of color eons ago. Through the years, the color vanished and the pure marble now shines through. Lily was amazed that the city wasn’t intentionally all white. Lily could see some tall columns standing. Anne said that was the ruins of the Zeus Temple. Ms. June and Anne retold many of the Greek myths. They took Lily to the Parthenon which was the temple of Athena. They explained how this was part of the Ancient Greek religion to honor their gods. Lily felt so extremely small in the temple. It felt like this was the land of giants. She marveled at all the marble and the beautiful art. On the way down, the girls counted the number of steps – 250 steps in all. They couldn’t believe how high up the Parthenon was.

They did some shopping and then went to the Panathenaic Stadium. They saw the first-ever Olympic games. Not only that, but the stadium was also the only one totally made of marble. There were so many track and field events. Unfortunately, many of the runners were having a hard time of it with the shorten tracks and sharp turns. The stadium had very soft loose cinders that made running hard as well. Nonetheless, it was a sight to behold and both girls thoroughly enjoyed watching the events. Before the games were over, Ms. June said they had to get back to the ship.

Captain Harry had everything ready to depart to the next destination – the island of Crete. This was the farthest island out from the mainland of Greece. The water was rough with strong northern winds and heavy rain. All of a sudden, there was calm as the ship entered the Aegean Sea and docked in the Old Venetian Harbor. The view of Crete as the ship dock was breathtaking. Crete is home to the ancient Minoan civilization. This was one of the oldest cultures ever discovered. Captain Harry took the girls around to the Palace of Knossos. The pottery and artwork were so beautiful. The palace was grand and elaborate. The girls loved all the vibrant colors and paintings within the palace. They visited the marketplace as well. Suddenly, a storm developed. Although not common, tropical storms known as medicanes can occur. Both Anne and Lily were familiar with hurricane type conditions and neither liked what was happening. Captain Harry tried to get the girls back to the ship to get Anne’s mom and to see about the crew. They got there and got everyone off the ship to a safe cavern.

The winds whirled and the storm hit with fierceness. They could see that the ship had been badly damaged. Poor Lily was really starting to feel homesick and missed her family. She was worried about them and knew they would be worried about her. Time had seemed to move so fast that Lily wasn’t even sure how long she had been gone. Ms. June held her close and tried to comfort her, along with Anne. Both girls held on to their Greek dolls and finally fell asleep.

Suddenly with a jolt, Lily could feel someone pulling on her telling her to get dressed. The person was saying a hurricane was coming. Lily opened her eyes, and it was her own mother. Lily jumped out of bed and the family went to the shelter until the hurricane had passed. While at the shelter, Lily told her family all about her adventure. Her family told her it was a dream as she was sound asleep until they woke her up for the hurricane. Lily wasn’t sure what to make of the whole thing. Maybe it was just a dream after finding all those things in the basement. Like all storms, everything cleared up and Lily’s family was able to return home. Thankfully, there was very little damage other than some lost pecan trees. Lily went to her room and on her nightstand were 2 little Greek dolls – one in a blue dress and one in a yellow dress. Lily knew it had been more than a dream now. Sometimes there is a bond between families that share the same house. One never knows what stories lie in the walls of an old house.