A Serious Blast From the Past

I happened to be able to spend the afternoon over at Earth-1 today. While I was there I was tasked by my mom if I wouldn’t mind bringing in the trash barrels after the truck comes by to empty them, which of course I said no problem. As I got out there and was getting ready to bring the receptacles back in to their storage spot, there was a woman at the front door I guess trying to ring the bell? I asked if I could help her and she asked if I lived in this house. At first I figured it might one of those political things. I replied that I had lived in the house and then she wanted to know if my mom still lived her and if she was alive? (She mentioned my mom by her maiden name). Kind of a weird question to ask, right? She then introduced herself as Irene. Apparently she used to live next door, back when there was a house there. We’re talking quite a while ago, they sold that house back in the early 80s. Anyways, I was able to get my mom out there and she knew her from way back and I do remember playing with her son back when I was like 5 years old through the gate in the back yard. Long story short it sounds like the developer who build the condo that’s there now (for like 30 years prior it was part of a laundromat that bought the property in the said 80s) wants to rent the land that it’s on because apparently this lady’s family still owns the land? They would prefer to just be paid outright. Something in all this seems a little whack to me though. I highly doubt the laundry was paying these people rent to use the land all those years. She mentioned something about a cloud being on the deed, which they cannot find. Sounds kind of weird, but anyway, we got to see a neighbor we haven’t seen in close to 50 years! My mon and Irene exchanged contacts and just might stay in touch moving forward.

I actually don’t remember Irene, but I do remember her son, as I mentioned. I seem to also remember that he had an older sister named Maria if my memory serves, But like I said, I was like 5 years old and they ended up moving pretty soon after. After they sold, the laundry rented the house out for a while. I do remember a band that used to practice there because I can still hear this song they used to practice all the time with the words “Katrina! Katrina!” but sung out like “KatreeeeeeeNA! Ka-treeeeeee-NA!” I found it quite annoying. Anyways after about a year of that the laundry ended up knocking the house down. I remember I wanted to stay home from school that day and watch it (they did have a wrecking ball!) but I had no such luck and was sent to school. When I came home it was already down. The laundry ended up building an extension on the land there where their trucks could unload the linens from the various hospitals that it supported. I know this because I worked there for a time, it was one of my first jobs.

Eventually the laundry merged with some other company and moved their HQ to somewhere outside Union Square and this property slowly became abandoned, They must have sold the building to a developer that knocked down the extension and build the aforementioned 4unit condo there that apparently tis woman still owns the land to. I’ll be interested to see if this story goes anywhere.


I think I need to get my hands on these lighthouse bottles. I don’t care about the booze, I just want the containers! Actually I could live without the current three but if they decide to put one out of Nubble or Pemaquid then I’m definitely going to have to take a trip to Maine to get them.

One last note, I’ve been playing around with some fonts on the site. I still haven’t settled on a favorite yet so the letters may look different here and there over time. I’m never satisfied!