We were able to rent one half of a single story duplex back in the same neighborhood where I had lived as the manager of the smaller apartment building. In fact, this place was just a couple of blocks away. The other half(pictured here but greatly changed with the sliding glass doors)was rented by a mother and her daughter we had met at our previous apartment house.

There were many advantages to our move. We now had a big back yard and we put in a swing set. The neighborhood was much quieter and no homeless people slept out back. The whole neighborhood had once been settled by Italian truck farmers and still had many fruit trees scattered around. We could literally eat our way around the area, munching on figs, plums and apples.

There was an shuttered elementary school down the block, but the large playground remained. A woman had opened a day care, Pumpkin Patch, in the building, making life very convenient when I had to work in the summer. Kitty-corner from our house, across the school’s ball field there was Porcelli’s, a small full service(produce and meat included) old school market.

Best of all, we seem to have landed on a block with many little children. There were three boys and three other girls across the street, and our back yard was a gathering place for them all since we had the swing set. The duplex was small but adequate. I dreamed of buying a house of my own, but that would have to wait a few years.