Memoirs of a Geezer
Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!
This Episode: A Moving Experience!
In 1995, or it may have been 1997 (I should check some documents, maybe...), we lived in a western suburban community. We were eager to leave it behind and move eastward. Even in GeezerHood, we, SweetHeart and I, were sentient enough to realize we didn't belong anywhere but in a city of a certain size and population, not to mention one having a political and social climate more conducive to our own beliefs, values and attitudes.
 |
| The old House! 128 Yrs. Old! |
We landed on the east side of Milwaukee, a block from Lake Park, in a beautiful neighborhood. Even the wild life seemed to enjoy the ambiance... wild turkeys, coyotes, deer, strange humanoids, vultures...
From the start, we both professed most adamantly that this -- a fine old duplex built in 1896 -- was fated to be our last place of residence. We would never move again! Never! We'd be carted to the curb in green refuse carts with our feet pointed upwards in case someone needed shoes!
We inherited a tenant, a professor at a nearby university. When she left us two delightful professors with their young child moved into the vacated upstairs flat. We occupied the downstairs. They departed after a couple of years to accept professorial positions in California. He, the child, left a colorful kite for me! Sweet lad that he was, 
probably still is!
Next a young couple moved in, but they wanted children and a larger home. Then came Joan. She remained with us for some 23 years. We became great friends, and the friendship has endured, though she moved out a couple of years ago, having had increasing difficulty with stairs, being in her 90s!
The new tenant was with us for approximately two years, a kind and generous woman who has three children and a boyfriend. He, the gentleman friend, is in residence occasionally when not plying his trade a a master electrician with a career based on the west coast. He commutes, of course, frequently!
The aforementioned tenant greatly admired the old house. It, the house, in 2024 having reached 128 years in stable existence, remained a most handsome and admirable structure and place of residence. She offered to purchase the home and we agreed to sell, abandoning our previous oath of "Never Moving Again." 
What the hell! Getting older, dealing with frequent breakdowns, repairs, purchases of new appliances for upstairs and down, paint, plaster, filling cracks, more paint, replacement of wood-burning fireplaces with gas fireplaces, new furnaces, installation of whole-house air conditioning, a new roof, a new porch (to replace a sinking one), concrete footings, new concrete stairways leading to the front porch and doors, interior stripping of ancient paint and wallpaper, new paint, new lighting fixtures, new sinks, re-tiling of both kitchen floors, installation of electrical breakers to replace ancient fuses... most of the upgrades and improvements, beautifications thanks to the extraordinary Rob C.!
The above is a partial listing of home-ownership duties and chores. It tires me to enumerate, and listing more will only send me back to bed, I'm afraid!! I'm already yawning and my eyelids are drooping...
We decided the time had come to move. We explored condominiums, many of them. Then we remembered the above, the litany of requirements of home ownership, ladders, painting, pounding things, snaking drains, mopping, cleaning sinks, toilets, Q-tips for crud that accumulated in sink overflow ports...
The moving project was a lengthy and arduous process! (This is unlikely to be a revelation to those city denizens who have moved just once or many times!). The wonderful daughter of our long-standing upstairs tenant, neighbor and friend engaged a Junk
Removal team that off-loaded and unloaded much of her mother's, along with our own
third floor (attic?) overflow, and then the subterranean (basement) junk as well. We all thought removal of the aforementioned stuff would never cease!! (I believe it was quite dark when the parade of outgoing stuff finally subsided!!... Sorta-like Aliens!) 👽
Removal team that off-loaded and unloaded much of her mother's, along with our own
It was certainly a purposeful start. Extraordinary how much material (junk, unwanted stuff!) we all accumulate. When we commenced the actual move, the big and permanent move, that is, we had already, previously, commandeered several vehicles of friends, daughters, grandsons and others to move to the new place of residence (an apartment) several thousand cartons and boxes filled with "treasures." (Minor hyperbole!!). Our older daughter was a tremendous inspiration and help! Her mantra: "No one wants it; no one needs it; It's going... Get rid of it!!"
We are now firmly ensconced in the new place of residence, a rental, that is, a rented apartment. It's quite nice. Two bedrooms, two full baths, a storage locker, an open
balconied porch that overlooks a very attractive courtyard... flowers, trees, a seating area, a gas grill... One can almost feel the presence of Frederick (Freddy, I like to call him!) Law Olmstead, ("Father of Landscape Architecture," I believe!?). Everything is so darn "Becoming." Freddy's descriptor, not the author's / perpetrator's of this writing!
Quite an adventure. We'll never move again until we're dead... We've sworn a new oath of allegiance to "ultimate and immovable stability"!! Not going anywhere! Never! If you see us many years hence walking along the nearby parkway, and we're still among the living, in or near our new place of residence, give us an acknowledging wave!!!
[Special Note of Dedication: To SweetHeart and to our dearest and best-loved non-relative friends, Rob and his muse, Susie (if one may call her such!) and our Sweet Wonderful Alie, the master decorator / hanger of art -- to all of them, for their unwavering love, friendship and companionship! Thank you!]
