Former Homes

Summit Terrace

307 N. Grove

These are the two places at which I lived in Bowling Green. 

The Summit Terrace place was an apartment complex with six buildings.  A number of students lived there, but it wasn't a non-stop party zone like some of the buildings closer to campus.  Most of the students would leave for the summer, which meant the inground pool was often empty.  The big drawback was the noise.  Not so much from the students but from the train. 

You can't really tell from this picture but the train tracks are about 20 feet behind the apartment.  It was loud but I actually got used to the rhythmic sound.  What made more noise was the small foundry on the other side of the tracks.  They mostly made concrete burial vaults.  The forklift would start up very early in the morning and make such a clanging noise that it was difficult to sleep much past six or so.

A rent increase (from $400/month for a two-bedroom in 1990 to $440/month in 1993 - it's $575/month now), a need to save money, and a desire for more quiet led me to North Grove Street.  I think the rent was $325/month.  The house was divided into two apartments.  I had the first floor. 

When I moved in there was, for lack of a better word, a pathetic woman living on the second floor.  Life did not treat here well.  She dropped out of college because it was too expensive and had taken a job in a factory.  She had a crappy old car that was always breaking down until she drove it off the road and totaled it (she was okay).  Without a car she walked the couple miles to work.  It was a cold winter.  She came home and cried most nights.  Eventually she was evicted for not paying her rent.  Her replacement was a jovial, large legally-blind woman with coke bottle glasses.  She played bass in a reggae band and, as far as I could tell, only owned one shirt -a paper-thin tied-dyed beauty.  She called me, and I suspect everyone else, dude.

I almost didn't recognize the house because the porch had been enclosed, a side-door added, a tree removed and bushes planted.  It certainly needed renovation as it was falling apart while I lived there. 

Soon after moving in the doorbell, which was a buzzer, decided to not turn off.  Nobody had pressed the doorbell, it just started buzzing and didn't stop until I unwired it.  The door had it in for me.  The key lock never worked all that well.  One windy night I was awoken by a BAM!  BAM!  BAM! as the locked door was opening and closing in the breeze.  Luckily there was an inner door with a deadbolt as the landlord wasn't too responsive to my complaints. 

The North Grove place had a washer and dryer in the apartment.  Sort of.  The washer and dryer were in an enclosed, unheated back room.  During one cold spell the washing machine drain had frozen and the tub never emptied of water.  There was a tub of frozen clothes awaiting me. 

On another evening I was reading a book when I heard a noise.  A noise much like the washing machine filling with water.  Only I hadn't put any clothes in the machine.  I opened the door to see what was going on and there was a water fountain display the likes of which hadn't been seen since the Columbian Exposition in Chicago a century earlier.  Steam and water were spraying everywhere.  I traced the pipes backward in hopes of finding a cut-off without any luck.  I did manage to wrap a towel around the burst pipe so that the flow of water was semi-manageable.  The landlord did respond to this request and I was shown the location of the cut-off valve.  Pulling a corner of the carpet up revealed a secret door in the floor.  If only I had thought to look there!

One last story about this house,, which is really a story about me being uncoordinated.  As I said the porch has been enclosed since I lived there.  To get to my car what I'd normally do is hop onto the porch, step down to the lawn and then get in the car.  I was going grocery shopping one afternoon when I hopped onto the porch, slipped and crashed into a porch column, and then got up and got into the car.  I clearly remember sitting in the driver's seat, moving the key toward the ignition and going into dreamland.  It was a fantastic dream!  Although I didn't hit my head when I slipped, I somehow managed to knock myself out.  It was one of my finest moments.  I wasn't out but for a few seconds.  After a several minutes rest in the car I drove to the grocery store.  That probably wasn't too smart, but I'm here today to tell the tale so it all worked out in the end.

Comments

[judy]

I remember the top one. That train sounded like it was going thru the living room. Did you see any Lillian Gish movies while you were there?

[cheryl]

Joe, I loved the details that you wrote into this. I could picture the woman's tie-dyed shirt. I could hear the door banging in the wind, feel trains shaking the house.

[Marie Carnes]

Nice trip down memory lane. Even with the state of various disrepairs, I would have preferred the second apartment over the first. It just has more charm. Glad you came out of that fall in tact. I'd hate to think of you withering away in a Bowling Green nursing home all these years. ;)

[Joe]

Gish Theater coming soon!

If the house weren't falling apart it would have been a pleasant place to live. Had I not moved away I probably would have bought a place in that neighborhood.