No longer standing (2019)
In the photo above, that is the actual lot where the building at 421 E. 20th Avenue once stood, now torn down and completely removed from what was there some 50 years ago… time sure moves on doesn’t it, but I do notice that the buildings on the left (red, and yellow) and on the right (green & white) are still there today, and they were there when we lived there over 60 years ago. More about them latter, they do come into play in this story, but first let me explain a little more about “our” building… this building had 6 apartments, 3 upstairs, and 3 downstairs… we lived in the apartment in the back, up on the 2nd floor, the apartment had an “enclosed porch” and a patio. I’m bringing attention to this porch and patio because a lot of significant things happened on this porch and patio… things that shaped my life and influenced me to be who I am today, some shocking, some tragic, some inspiring.
Up on the 2nd floor
As I mentioned, from my age of about two we lived there at this 421 E. 20th Avenue address. We lived up on the second floor apartment in the back, this apartment had two bed rooms, one bathroom, a porch, and a patio. A lot of things happened on this porch, but first let’s talk about the interior of this apartment, some serious stuff happened in and around this apartment, such as the “foot-tub” incident that I mentioned in the preceding post.
The Porch
During the course of this writing I will come back to this porch & patio as I reflect on these things as they come into play during my growing years, up through about 12 years old.
Picture this porch “without” the hammock and chairs (it is a very similar porch, almost identical).
the patio
This would have been the patio, it was attached to the porch, all on the 2nd floor. And yes, we had a dog too… a black Labrador, just like the one pictured below, if I didn’t know better I’d swear it was the same dog… we called him “Tricksy”.
“TRICKSY”
Great dog… except… I had to clean up after him, and trust me, for an 8 and 9 year old kid having to feed, clean up after, and take it for walks was not a pleasure (at least not for me, I had no interest what-so-ever in baby sitting this animal). That dog actually got sick, and then was inflicted with “mange”… it later died. I felt for it, but I had never really attached myself to it… I was too busy trying to build stuff on that porch. That porch is where I found solitude… it was my safe-place.
Field of Sunflowers.
From this patio you could look out and see an empty lot across the way that was filled with Sunflowers… and I do mean filled, there where what seemed to be thousand’s of them.