Panorama City-My Early Childhood House

The house is still in the family. Mom's been renting it to the same people since I was old enough to have facial hair. The people finally moved out; the facial hair's still there. The man living in it was like Tim the Tool Man and could fix anything, he said. Truth is; he could rig anything so that it worked at least half-as-well as it worked before it was broken. In other words, we have some work to do on it before we are able to rent it again.

All of this led me to drive back over to the house to see how it looked, and to check for Squattters, as there was some indication that people were using the house; gates not closed, doors not locked-that type of thing.

I'm still having trouble breathing, and my skin is still crawling. The carpet was there since the renters originally moved in; somewhere around 1985. It's a dirty, brown, stained, flat and trampled piece of material. How they lived with it is beyond me. The white fiberglass shower has a yellow patch on the floor; where a hole used to be. Not sure how you gouge out your shower; but they did. And sure enough, Mr. Fixit repaired it. Can you say 'dry rot?' Did I mention that there were spider webs in every corner? There is also a militant ant patrol marching around the perimeter of the house expecting that if Joshua could make those walls fall down then so could a million ants!

Aside from all that; its the main house I lived in through kindergarten. Specters of neighbors, Kirk, Vinnie (Popodopoulis) and Shawn haunt the lawn and the houses next door. The palm trees are there too; but the hedge under it that acted as fort, castle and cool hangout is gone. And somebody stole the stove and the fridge!

I spare you pictures of the carpet and shower stall, spiders and ants.

I love the lamp! I must have blocked the bathroom out of my mind though. The toilet is green too!

I bet your house had a vent like this one!