As luck would have it there were a number of high rise apartments being built along Grant Avenue southeast of downtown, very near the schools. A building named Kent Towers had just been completed and it was ideal - right by a bus stop and directly across from the Grant Park shopping center.
So around February we rented unit 1108 - a top floor 2 bedroom corner apartment. It was brand new - with all the latest appliances, parquet floors and a balcony... Karina and I finally got our own rooms again (mom got herself a day bed for the living room).
I still remember the taxi ride when we moved all our stuff to the new place. (We really didn't have much.) The taxi had one of those adjustable day-night mirrors. That was 'new techology' back then and I'd never seen one before - it took me a long time to figure out that it was basically a prism. Very clever! ... And I'm drifting off topic...
We couldn't really afford the new apartment, but that didn't slow mom down :-)
We bought brand new furniture and area rugs - which we couldn't afford... And a new color television - which we couldn't afford (they were horrendously expensive back then). And mom even bought herself a piano - which we couldn't afford... All of it on "easy monthly payments":-)
We sneaked in a kitten in a laundry hamper. Pets weren't allowed so it never left the apartment. We couldn't let it on the balcony either because it was sure it could hop down (from the 11th floor)...
OK - Google maps is really confused about the addresses on Grant, so if you google "Grant Park Shopping Centre Winnipeg" and drop the street view guy one block to the left (the intersection of Grant and Thurso) and look north, Kent Towers is the squarish red brick building on the right. Our apartment was on the top floor, facing Thurso, closest to Grant...
Mom got herself some art supplies and started painting... I got really obsessive about the guitar. Karina was playing hers quite a bit too - and mom started giving her "formal" singing lessons. Luckily the guy downstairs also had a piano and loved mom's playing...
And I was busy doing the high school thing - going to all the football games and dances... I never actually danced because that would have required talking to a girl...
Oh - that reminds me about something vaguely relevant:
There were two Catholic girls schools near St. Paul's: St. Mary's and Sacred Heart (where Karina went).
St. Mary's provided our cheerleaders and Sacred Heart provided the actresses for our school plays. Both schools were invited to all our dances and social events... So there were plenty of girls but I was too scared to ask them to dance - I was sure they'd just laugh at me...
And while I'm on topic: The 3 Murphy sisters - Kathleen, Maureen and Aileen (goddesses all) went to Sacred Heart. Less than a year later (while they were still in high school) Sugar 'n Spice was formed. It immediately became a top tier local band - I actually spotted one of their records on eBay while researching this. Here's a picture of the band - I found it online:
Left to right - Maureen (my personal favorite) stayed in the music and media business, Aileen became a doctor (or went into software - I've heard both) and Kathleen became a lawyer... So yeah - they were gorgeous, talented and bright... Needless to say, my sister Karina hated them :-) More on that later...
Finally - before leaving Germany we packed all our stuff in a chest that mom's sister Vesti was supposed to send it to us... Well - what arrived was box about 1/4th the size of the chest. Yes - aunt Vesti had gone through everything and decided we didn't need most of it - like all of my personal keepsakes from my time in Germany...
So for the second time in as many years someone had gone though my stuff and disposed of almost everything that mattered to me... Except for those Beach Boy records and my Stan Musial memorabilia - I still have them today :-)
2 comments:
Google maps really does have a hard time with that area, but I'm pretty sure I found the place. Can't believe you were able to take all of your belongings in a taxi...I can't even imagine it.
And at least it sounds like you managed to hang onto some of the things that were most important to you...though you haven't to wonder what the adults in your life were thinking...as if your life wasn't tough enough it's pretty brutal to go through your things and dispose of most of them like that!
Dad was definitely overwhelmed - and Vesti was just "sensible"...
I mean why would you pay money to ship something across the Atlantic that has no practical use, right?
It wasn't just me that was affected. And it wasn't the last time we lost just about everything... There are more stories to come...
Post a Comment