At Home with Dick Gordon:
Dick Gordon doesn't need to leave home to see the world. Pieces of it -- with all its beauty and strife -- surround him in his airy, two-bedroom Coolidge Corner apartment.
Gordon, 47, and his wife of 25 years, Barbara, 50, have traveled extensively, thanks principally to Dick's 24 years as a correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., but also to his job as host of "The Connection" on WBUR-FM (90.9) for nearly three years. They have lived in New Delhi and Moscow, and in seven places in their homeland, Canada. Gordon has reported from Pakistan, Turkey, Zimbabwe, and other points around the globe. Recently, he hosted his show from Iraq.
Gordon's American-made leather easy chair, where he prepares for his show's 10 weekly live interviews, sits among extraordinary international furnishings and artifacts, including a carpet from Peshawar, Pakistan, made by Afghan refugees fleeing life under the Talaban. Symbols such as AK-47 rifles, grenades, teapots, and lions appear in geometric patterns. Their carpets are "emblematic of the life they were living," he explains.
Another carpet is from Diyarbakir, Turkey, where Kurdish refugees were living in camps, and yet one more came from Kabul in 1993, purchased amid its smoke and rubble. "I end up in places tourists don't usually go," he says, explaining that his interpreters escort him, and merchants are thrilled to receive American dollars. "I once had 19 carpet merchants gathered around saying `drink some tea.' It was fun."
The Gordon home is dominated by a combined living and dining area, an expansive and sunny space rimmed by a huge wraparound terrace. One of the dividers between the two spaces is what Gordon calls "the pope's couch," a comfortable, blue-cotton piece funded by the overtime pay he earned during Pope John Paul II's Canada tour in 1983. "I'm indebted to John Paul II in more ways than others," he teases.
A large china cabinet (from New Delhi, with a matching dining room table) also separates the two areas. Atop the cabinet sit Barbara's basket collection from their travels, including a beer basket Dick brought back from South Africa. Nearby, two wooden benches carved with elephant heads, from Rajasthan, India, sit low to the ground, designed for Indian tribal gatherings, Gordon explains. Behind, statues of Lenin and Stalin sit on built-in bookshelves.
Nearby sits a child's push toy, made in Zimbabwe of wood, wire, and duct tape, and two massive Arabian serving dishes carved from Lebanese cedars.
"The constant in all of our moves has been the four of us," says Barbara, referring to daughters Pamela, 22, and Sheila, 19. They attend Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, where Dick and Barbara met as students. In Moscow and New Delhi, the girls attended international schools and Barbara taught elementary school. Summers, they've long vacationed in a cottage north of Toronto, with no newspapers, electricity, or running water, only a radio, and a cellphone for emergencies.
The focus is canoeing, exploring, and family time. "It's fabulous," says Dick. "Our favorite place is our summer place. For all the years we were on the road, it was our only constant home." Canada remains in view all year long through paintings by a friend, John Hartman, who paints Canadian landscapes in pastels, oils, and watercolor. They also have a Canadian corner displaying soapstone and Haida wood carvings and Dick's cold-weather mitts made from moose hide. Beneath are Russian dolls that Barbara watched being made by hand.
The terrace is one of several on their floor, where the views include treetops in the neighborhood and glimpses of the Boston skyline beyond. But they are probably the only residents who can also look out over the boss's place. By coincidence, he says, Gordon lives across the street from Jane Christo, the controversial general manager of WBUR who chose Gordon to replace Christopher Lydon after Lydon and the station parted acrimoniously.
Barbara enjoys gardening and tends to the terrace's many geranium pots and Alberta spruce trees in planters. She also likes to cook; Dick concedes he does "minimal" work at home, pointing to a pile of newspapers and books luring him over to his work chair.
"I would be utterly lost without Barbara. She takes care of every part of my life. That allows me to concentrate on journalism."