Sources of (much-needed!) fun:
Driving around and around, like when we were kids
Of late, I’ve focused on that crucial element: fun.
Haven’t had much of that since I dropped out of the choir (plague!) and quit hiking alone in the Phoenix Mountain Parks (insane!) and no longer can afford to burn a tank of $4/gallon gasoline driving around in aimless sight-seeing.
This morning I ventured downtown on some minor errand and, once that was done, found myself revisiting and roaming around the Old Neighborhood. Here in lovely Phoenix, that would be the area called Encanto, a district that coalesced around a lovely public park during the 1930s. The place is full of beautiful old homes — one of which DXH and I lived in for upwards of a decade. It’s quiet and pretty and distinctive…and boy, do I miss it!
Over all these years, we’ve lived in…
* Parents/college years: Sun City
* Fresh out of college: Shiny studio apt on Thomas Road
* Early marriage: Bourgeois apartment off Camelback Road
* Married years in Encanto: Cypress Street
* North Central: Hayward Avenue
* Sunnyslope: My house
* Sunnyslope: SDXB’s house
* M’jito: Midtown
* SDXB: Sun City
* North Phx: Overpriced apartment
….a-a-a-n-d….
Now that I’m old…. Well, truth to tell, I’d just as soon be in our first, beautiful, antique house in the historic Encanto district. What a beautiful place. What grand young neighbors and elegant old neighbors.
Scary as Hell, yes. But oh! so beautiful.
If we’d enclosed the driveway at the Cypress house and turned it into lockable garage space, we’d probably still be there! Any such structure would have blocked entry to the patio from the west side, making entries from the street and side yards impregnable. And the continuing presence of a large dog would have kept the backyard plenty safe. BUT: when the city snabbed a private home half a block from our place and turned it into a fire station, complete with wailing sirens 24 hours a day…not so good.
I see the fire station has reverted to private property again….years and years later.
Still, my present house is more than fine. If it weren’t for the Romanian Landlord issue, I probably would feel little or no sentimental longing to return to Encanto.