Moving – To A Basement !
We moved. It was a bit of a shock, actually. T’was during the summer between 3rd and 4th grade. For some reason, my parents sold our house and we had no place to go. The man across the street from us was a real estate agent and I’m guessing that he had a chance to sell our house and his and he somehow talked my folks into selling their house with no house to move to when we moved out!
What we moved into is a little hard to explain. Back in those days, some folks built “basements” and then put a roof on it. A flat, tar paper roof. The thought is that if that’s all you could afford, that’s what you did and then you could build the actual house on top of the basement at a later date. This was on Ohio & 12th. Well, that’s where we moved, into a basement, a rental basement. EXCEPT that it wasn’t the whole basement but just HALF THE BASEMENT!! Yes, there were actually two apartments in the basement. The real estate agent’s family was in one, we were in the other. There were three rooms + a bath. A kitechen/living/dining room combination and two bedrooms. In each of the bedrooms there was enough room for a bed. Period.
My sister and I had been in a bunk bed for years. So that wasn’t much of a difference but that was all that there was in that room. Of course, since it was a basement, there wasn’t much light. I don’t have many memories of that place but the ones I have are very neutral. I admit that I did like the act of changing. And I did like the fact that we were actually two blocks closer to school.
Years later, they built a house on top of that basement. But when I drive by that corner, I still see the flat tar roof.
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Nice writing style. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Chris Moran