Tied October 16th, 2004

©2004 Neiconi Photography

Have yourself a merry crackhouse christmas...

I inherited a huge dollhouse when my Grandma passed away. Every time we went to her house as a kid, I played with it. I love this dollhouse and I’m very happy that out of all the fortyleven grandkids on my dad’s side, I was chosen to inherit it. Problem is, it is huge. I mean enormous. It sits on a piece of plywood that is 36” square. When it sits on the lazy susan stand it is about 5 feet tall. HUGE. What would you do with a gigantic dollhouse if you were in your mid-twenties and living in a two bedroom apartment with a roommate? Here is what I did…








I don't know about your city, but here in Birmingham we have a lot of these gorgeous old homes that usually are in the middle of the hood or beside the interstate. Deserted and vacant in the bad part of town, some are condemned and falling apart. The perfect spot for crack dens and meth labs.

So anyway this dollhouse I inherited looked so much like one of those old rundown houses. And when I decided to remodel it, but never finished the project, it got even more similar! It even came with this tiny little hobo who held his worldly belongings in a handkerchief on a stick. Seriously. And then the hobo became addicted to crack. One night at a party he was found lying on his side next to an empty bottle of cheap vodka. My friends became obsessed with the hobo and his antics. They would hold intervention sessions and negotiate with the hobo to keep him committing suicide by jumping off the roof.

Another fun thing about the dollhouse was to use the window trim that I had pried off the house during renovations to leave each other (and the hobo) messages. ”I LovE U” was the note left to the hobo when this pic was taken. We also lovingly decorated it with beautiful Christmas lights.

And then it came a freak blizzard and the hobo froze to death on the front porch.