Houses
Fri., August 5, 09:31 AM
Whenever someone writes about all the places they’ve lived, I look at myself and laugh. I believe I can count my houses on my fingers.
I’ve written about the house on Court Street, where we lived until I was almost fifteen. After we moved into the house on Glenbrook Road, fifty years ago, that was it.
My dad lived there for twenty-three years (until his death), and my mother stayed on for another five years or so. Until I married, that house was my legal address – the address from which I voted, for example – even when I wasn’t actually living in it. Although the house was far more comfortable than Court Street, it doesn’t lend itself to memorable writing so much.
Just a note: that house on Glenbrook Road – the one for which my parents paid about $18,000 – was recently sold for $466,000. If my mother had realized it would appreciate that much, she might have thought twice about moving!
I went away to college, where I lived in two different dormitories and then in an off-campus apartment. Count that as three more residences. And I was living in an apartment in Manhattan when I met Husband.
When we got married, I moved into Husband’s apartment, and we were there for about two years. And then we bought the Cheesebox; December will mark thirty-five years that we’re here.
Pathetic, isn’t it? Not just counting on my fingers – I don’t even need thumbs. But I think I’ve figured something out. We don’t move because it’s such a hassle. Just contemplating a move now – which probably won’t happen for another year, at least – is making me nuts. Even though I keep telling myself the sore muscles wouldn’t matter so much in an apartment – with elevators. Dull or not, you will probably hear all of my flip-flopping on this subject.
Every day I come to some bit of illogical thinking from those who ought to know better. Maybe it’s a new “department.”
How come? Just about every industry is laying people off and operating with fewer employees. Except the military, which is having trouble recruiting kids. Could it be the kids have discovered they could get killed? In any case, when enough people lose their jobs, maybe more recruits will be available. We won’t investigate whether or not they’re appropriate for the job.
