Come join me for this week's edition. Post yours Thursday and comeback and sign up with MckLinky. This Thursday's topic is: First Apartment -
This topic is courtesy of JHS @ Colloquium. Because I've used JHS's topic, I am awarding her 100 Entrecard Credits. For details on how you can submit a topic, and if used, earn 100 Entrecard Credits, click here.
What are your First Apartment stories?
How small was it? How did you furnish it? Did you have a roommate?
Please post your "First Apartment" post on your blog. Then come back to Lola's Diner and leave the actual post link here. Please grab the html code for If I Could Blog Back Time Thursdays! Badge HERE.
What are your First Apartment stories?
How small was it? How did you furnish it? Did you have a roommate?
I got my first apartment in June 1988. I was 27 years old. What can I say? I had a cheap thing going living at home! I could afford a big car payment. It was all about the car back then...a brand new 1984 Cutlass Supreme, yes, I had my priorities! In 1988 suddenly I had the itch to get my own place, far, far, far away from Milwaukee. Chicago was it!
I took a few Ferris days to go apartment shopping and found one fairly reasonable on Pine Grove, near Broadway and Addison. A nice walk from Wrigley Field and pretty much in the heart of Boystown, the gayest part of Chicago. I didn't find that out right away, not until shortly after I moved in when the Gay Pride Parade was going on and I couldn't find parking after a trip to Targhay. I spent hours driving looking for a spot, then ended up begging a parking lot attendant in a Lake Shore Drive high rise to let me park there,swearing I wasn't "one of those". (Technically, at the time I wasn't aware, so I can safely say that I answered honestly. Lol!)
My apartment looked like a former hotel room converted to an apartment. The kitchen appliances were the super small, almost like Little Tykes kitchen toys. The kitchen lineoleum was a square and a half wide, by maybe 5 feet long. That was it. That was my kitchen. I had to get a cart table with flip down leaves that I put in my living room for use as my kitchen table/countertop because there was no countertop. When I bought that cart/table it was assemble yourself, so I bought my first power tools. I shopped Goodwill in Milwaukee and found a really cool 50's style sofa. We moved all the stuff in my car and in my Dad's El Camino. No moving van for me! The biggest perk of this apartment was the tons of closet space. One living room wall and one bedroom wall were all bi-fold closet doors.
Thanksgiving with that kitchen was interesting. I bought the smallest turkey I could find and it didn't fit in the oven and I had to cut it in 1/2 by the breastbone and cook only a half at a time.
I used to walk to the bar on the weekend (ok, sometimes during the week too). I think it was Joe's on Broadway. A little hole in the wall past Diversey. My route took me past The Closet (a gay bar, mostly women) but I only went in once or twice and couldn't get a drink because of the crowd back then. Funny, because when I figured out about myself years later and went there, the place was empty.
I moved to Chicago not having a job, so much of my time was spent job searching. When I wasn't job searching I was exploring or just trying to find something to do to keep me out of my matchbox sized apartment. One day I walked from my apartment all the way to the Sears Tower (It will always be the Sears Tower to me!) Yes! I said walked all the way! I used to walk a lot before my health problems in 2007.
After I got a job at the antique store on Lincoln, I made a few friends with my co-workers. I'd hang out at El Jardin drinking margaritas with one of them. The other friend introduced me to all the various ethnic restaurants of Chicago.
I lived in that apartment for a year. It was small, but it served it's purpose and it was a great first apartment. It also made me a parallel parking professional.
I took a few Ferris days to go apartment shopping and found one fairly reasonable on Pine Grove, near Broadway and Addison. A nice walk from Wrigley Field and pretty much in the heart of Boystown, the gayest part of Chicago. I didn't find that out right away, not until shortly after I moved in when the Gay Pride Parade was going on and I couldn't find parking after a trip to Targhay. I spent hours driving looking for a spot, then ended up begging a parking lot attendant in a Lake Shore Drive high rise to let me park there,swearing I wasn't "one of those". (Technically, at the time I wasn't aware, so I can safely say that I answered honestly. Lol!)
My apartment looked like a former hotel room converted to an apartment. The kitchen appliances were the super small, almost like Little Tykes kitchen toys. The kitchen lineoleum was a square and a half wide, by maybe 5 feet long. That was it. That was my kitchen. I had to get a cart table with flip down leaves that I put in my living room for use as my kitchen table/countertop because there was no countertop. When I bought that cart/table it was assemble yourself, so I bought my first power tools. I shopped Goodwill in Milwaukee and found a really cool 50's style sofa. We moved all the stuff in my car and in my Dad's El Camino. No moving van for me! The biggest perk of this apartment was the tons of closet space. One living room wall and one bedroom wall were all bi-fold closet doors.
Thanksgiving with that kitchen was interesting. I bought the smallest turkey I could find and it didn't fit in the oven and I had to cut it in 1/2 by the breastbone and cook only a half at a time.
I used to walk to the bar on the weekend (ok, sometimes during the week too). I think it was Joe's on Broadway. A little hole in the wall past Diversey. My route took me past The Closet (a gay bar, mostly women) but I only went in once or twice and couldn't get a drink because of the crowd back then. Funny, because when I figured out about myself years later and went there, the place was empty.
I moved to Chicago not having a job, so much of my time was spent job searching. When I wasn't job searching I was exploring or just trying to find something to do to keep me out of my matchbox sized apartment. One day I walked from my apartment all the way to the Sears Tower (It will always be the Sears Tower to me!) Yes! I said walked all the way! I used to walk a lot before my health problems in 2007.
After I got a job at the antique store on Lincoln, I made a few friends with my co-workers. I'd hang out at El Jardin drinking margaritas with one of them. The other friend introduced me to all the various ethnic restaurants of Chicago.
I lived in that apartment for a year. It was small, but it served it's purpose and it was a great first apartment. It also made me a parallel parking professional.
Please post your "First Apartment" post on your blog. Then come back to Lola's Diner and leave the actual post link here. Please grab the html code for If I Could Blog Back Time Thursdays! Badge HERE.
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My apartment looked like a former hotel room converted to an apartment. The kitchen appliances were the super small, almost like Little Tykes kitchen toys. The kitchen lineoleum was a square and a half wide, by maybe 5 feet long.At Bazaark we bring solutions on a variety of quality items: from Kitchenware, Outdoor Furniture to Garage Storage Solutions, Bike Racks & more
ReplyDeleteOooohhh...check out Bazaark; where were they when I had MY first apartment! :)
ReplyDeleteI hope I can get a post together to participate in your Thursday Blog Back Time; I'll have to see if I can get one together after I get the teens off to school!
Oh those first Apartments. Great memory to have. I remember those tables in the 80. Hubby and I had
ReplyDelete(wait I still have it in my sewing room, I am a pack rat for sure,lol) one.
Listening to Pat Benatar now.I like being able to listen while reading your blog. Hubby loves her and this is a good song. I really like the Jukebox. Do you have to subscribe to it?
ReplyDeleteMy First apartment Blog is up now. here is the link
ReplyDeleteCan you really move with an El Camino??
ReplyDeleteHi! I love your blog! I'm gonna grab, follow, etc. I like your meme, "If I Could Blog Back Time" and will start next week! Would you support my new meme? "Denim & Apples"? Here's the URL http://psychicmamaindigochild.blogspot.com/2009/08/denim-apples-meme.html
ReplyDeleteI went to the other links and did not find the meme. I was disappointed, maybe next week:-)
ReplyDelete