Moving Hell

For the work that I've done, I haven't got a lot to show for it. The only things I've been able to do so far is buy and move cleaning supplies in, find places to put them and add some extra lighting. Hard to believe that seems to have taken up two days. Of course, delays due to the lock and gas emergency led to some of it. I did get diverted today to looking at the neighborhood's famous open-air market. I bought lunch for three dollars, a bowl of rice and beans. It's a wonderful neighborhood to walk in with plenty of houses similar to the French Quarter in New Orleans, except in brick. Once I'm settled, hopefully before it gets cold, I should have fun just walking it and taking pictures.

I didn't realize how similar these houses were to dreams I've always had. It comes from my grandmother's old neighborhood, where huge spectacular houses of this style, practically mansions in their day, were abandoned, neglected and left to decay. It's the setting in my horror story Wil-o'-wisp. These, however, are mostly the idealized version of that architectural stereotype. As I post pictures, and I will soon, you'll see the idealized and the nightmare version.

The houses on my grandmother's street were mansions by 1860s standards. Unfortunately, after the Civil War, people began to abandon St. Louis. The city had already peaked, in population and importance, by the 1870s. After that, came Kirkwood, which was the first commuter suburb.The wealthy began to abandon Park Avenue near downtown for Kirkwood, the first community of its kind, and other suburbs like it. So, Park Avenue became the poor neighborhood. When it came time to set up public housing, they placed one of the biggest projects, the Darst-Webbe-Peabody project, right on Park & 12th (Tucker).

For me, though, I'm living in a cheap, decent apartment in Soulard, a great old neighborhood. The ghetto spot in the ritzy district. Despite all the troubles I've been having, it's well worth the wait, and I don't think I could have done better.