Crossing The Street

Once upon a time, we lived in a 2 family apartment that faced the bar. We stayed there until the woman who owned the property passed away. Her daughter inherited the place, and decided she didn't want to rent to pet owners anymore. This posed quite a problem since my family included a dog, a parakeet and several hamsters. Our new landlady gave us 30 days to find a new place. My sister and I promptly took on extra baby sitting jobs, and when that didn't look like it would be enough money we had a yard sale. We stripped our toy collection to the bare minimum. I even gave up several of my Breyer horses to raise some "moving money".

It is a strange thing to have people picking through your possessions, looking for a bargain. Everything was "make an offer", but we didn't sell very much. Mom came home early and caught us. She was so mad. She made us take everything back inside, then sat us down for a lecture. Mom rarely spanked us, and believe me, there were times I wished for a spanking. At least it would be over with quickly, instead of having to be part of a half hour long guilt session. The end result of this lecture was that we were forbidden to sell or trade any of the things she had worked so hard for. We were not allowed to do any work for anything but college money, and we were not allowed to beg money off of our friends. We had injured her pride, and now she wouldn't even let us help.

My sister and I figured that was it, we'd be homeless. While mom was looking for a new place, J and I thought up ways to keep our textbooks dry or searched the neighborhood for a good location not already in use by the homeless. Now, when my mom sets her mind to something; nothing stands in her way. The upstairs apartment next to the bar was going to be available in about a month and a half. Mom tracked down the landlord and somehow convinced him to let us move in earlier. She borrowed $400 from my grandma and we moved across the street in one day. It wasn't really that hard. Mom had 7 siblings, so we had a constant line of people moving stuff across California Avenue. We must have made quite a picture, because we drew a crowd. One of my uncles would carry a heavy piece of furniture all by himself, and the crowd would cheer. My sister and I would carry an overloaded box without spilling anything, and get applause. We even got some audience participation in the form of car spotters and neighbors bringing us cups of water. My family was probably the most entertaining thing they had seen all year.

That night, for the first time in my life, I slept in my own room.