Word count 998

I think about home in three dimensions – The dwelling, the location, and the internal environment.

The first twenty years of home was a three level including basement in a place which was outside Portland, Oregon USA but is now in NE Portland via annexation.  It started as two bedroom, parents in one room, older sister and I in another.  Later my very handy father finished the attic and moved me up there where I was regularly visited by various monsters.  I had a few friends within a few blocks, and could walk to my grade school Whitaker (after a few metamorphoses now Native American Youth And Family Center).  Our house was in keeping with an average suburban area for the time.  My neighborhood was close to 100% Anglo until the end of grade school at which time a native Alaskan and a Latina started at Whitaker.  I was taken with the Latina, but that’s another story.

I stayed at home for the first years at Portland State, but then moved close to the college.  Housing was temporary because there was no reason to stick around after the school year.  The freedom was great after the regimentation of high school.  I lived in three or more hovels with multiple roommates for the sum of about $100 a month.  I remember mice in the wall, vomiting into the bedsprings with unchanged linen, lots of beer and hamburgers.  During the time of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, I was short changed on the sex.  Mostly good times, except for some pills I shouldn’t have taken and the blackout drunk.

All of the cheap housing in the area was torn down for urban renewal, a freeway, or more Portland State.  Government makes problems then attempts solutions.

In Eugene at the University Of Oregon I had a couple of different roommates and more literally low rent housing.  One place had a gas fireplace that was cheerful.  Little fun was had.  Last graduate school year was in Manhattan (1968-69) (Kansas that is).  When I got there I couldn’t find any housing so the first night I slept in an apartment with an unlocked door.  I had decided not to take a room with a widow temperance person.  The longer term solution was a hotel room for a few dollars a night, then a place with a gas leak that gave me a consistent headache (didn’t find out until just before I moved out), finally a helpful woman found me a pleasant cheap place for my final stay.  My first year teaching was more cheap apartments, first with a roommate, then on my own.  The next year things looked up a lot as I met the woman who would become my editor, but my wife first.  Sorry for being repetitious, but we had more cheap apartments, but at least I had good company.

I needed a job change so I became an actuary and moved to a Louisville and a horrible job.  For a while we moved in with a couple who were friends of ours.  Louisville was and probably (1973-1975) one of the cheaper housing markets in the country – a shotgun shack (long and thin) could be had for $10,000.  We thought about buying, but the job didn’t improve, the air and climate were wretched (too hot, too cold or too wet).  A tornado that passed a block from where we lived made leaving the obvious decision.

We got off to a good start in Denver.  We lived and worked in the prairie in the Northeast part of town.  I could walk to work and the weather was good, but then it snowed at the end of May.  As non-skiers, we got tired of the snow and cold.  After our last apartment living we got a cheap, poorly constructed house for $35,000.  It was a tri level, so we would sleep on the top floor in winter to stay warm and the basement in the winter to stay cool.

Because of the arid conditions and cold much of the year, growing things was hard, but I did produce pumpkin volunteers that I distributed to neighbor kids.  Denver was where we got Virga (not Viagra).  Rain would fall from the clouds and evaporate before hitting the ground.  I painted the house during the three years we were there.  The family grew to three when Sharon’s sister gave us her cat Frodo.  I wasn’t a Lord Of The Rings fan, more Bored Of The Rings (parody), so Frodo became Batface, one fine cat.  When we became tired of home maintenance, I got a break from attempting lawn mowing by moving into a condo.  The downside was a longer drive, but it was huge and had features like a mirrored bedroom, and a tennis court that was snow free for a little while.

I progressed professionally while I was there, but eventually stalled, so after four years of snow and cold we moved to Los Angeles 1979-83.  What a change.  No winter, no snow, poisonous air but flavored differently from Louisville.  After a short stay at the infamous Roosevelt Hotel, later the home of Bobby Kennedy’s assassination, we moved for a slightly longer period to a place divorced or separated people lived short term.  We bought a place is fairly bad condition on the West side which was mixed with Jewish, other white, Black, and a mostly American Sikhs.  It did have some trees in the back yard where we strung a hammock.  A robber broke in through a back window and stole a TV and a sleeping bag.  That wasn’t as bad as my job, so off to Marin County 1983-1978 because Sharon got a job there.

We started in a condo we rented with a friend in the northern part of the county and then bought a place in Corte Madera, which was as far south as we could afford.  The place was built on fill in the early 1950s.  During the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake it did lot of shaking.  Despite that and being moderately sized, cheaply constructed, and outdated, after updates by subsequent owner(s), Zillow now values it at well over a million dollars.  Probably should have rented it rather than selling it when we moved to the Portland Oregon area in support of my aging mother.

Back to the beginning in the Portland area (1998 – ), we moved into a small condo with lots of problems.  We lost money on selling it, but the place we live now has paid us well in appreciation.  It’s one of five places on a driveway.  Two level, lots of big red cedars and Douglas firs.  Lots of space, maybe too much, conveniently located close to shopping and parks.  Good place, but we are thinking about moving to Sunset City (generic for retirement apartment).

In Pure Slush Lifespan Home edition a series with many episodes. Also in work with “How To Be An Actuary”.