Last week’s question about whether one was born and/or raised and/or currently lives in The Big City, suburbia, or in a rural area compels me to ask a follow-up question.
In my earliest memories, I remember my Mom and stepdad living in an apartment building roughly a couple a blocks from the Detroit River on Detroit’s East Side...for a time. It was the same apartment buIlding that a couple of relatives on both sides of the families lived in.
Primarily, though, I lived with my aunt and uncle up until the age of 8 in a house further west and north from my Mom. For a time, I had my own room except when other kids (especially my brother) would visit for short or extended stays.
I don’t remember the house on Roland Street as being particualarly large but it did have a nice-sized porch, 2 bedrooms and a room that could be converted into a 3rd bedroom, if needed. Nice-sized kitchen, a big basement, and an attic that was used for storage with the bottom steps serving as a makeshift pantry.
There are ways in which Detroit and Chicago are similar but one of the big differences between the two cities, IMO. is that Chicago has a greater density of apartment buildings, it seems to me. As I grew from a toddler into a teenager, I have vivid memories of the foliage even in the city, small to medium sized backyards, houses with multiple bedrooms and an upstairs and downstairs, sharing rooms with my brother and eventually, when I became a teenager, a room of my own in a big attic in a house my Mom bought. It would get so hot in that attic in the winter time that even on really cold nights, I would crack open the window...which Mom discovered that I did a couple of times and...well, you know the rest, I won’t bore you with the details of what she would say upon her discovery...or how she said it.
Since I left home, it’s been pretty much room and apartment rentals of various sizes for me; for the most part, I’ve lived in larger and more densely packed cities...and, it’s simply me, so I usually have everything that I need in a dwelling. (And besides, I have been without dwellings on occasion).
Many people in my family still live in houses within and outside of the Detroit city limits; a few live in nice-sized apartments. I doubt that I would ever need anything as big as a house...and there’s always that upkeep.
But I will admit to getting nostalgic when I walk around residential neighborhoods with lots of houses; especially when they have trees.
Today’s question: What kind of housing did you grow up in? Apartment? House? House with a farm? What type of dwelling do you live in now...or recently?
RSVPS
1. nhox42
2. Common Sense Mainer
3. Bill in Portland Maine
4. radical simplicity
5. radical simplicity’s spousal unit
6. Knockbally
7. freedapeople
8. AnotherMassachusettsLiberal
9.
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RSVPS
1. tbirchard
2. navajo
3. Glen The Plumber
4. remembrance
5. TLO
6. jpmassar
7. Meteor Blades
8. kimoconnor
9. citisven
10. side pocket
11. jck
12.
13.
14. (current reservation limit)
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smileycreek
paradise50
Mary
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