| Chapter 3: | Stores, Houses |
Stores, Houses and the Gang
The kids in my neighborhood called their apartments “houses” and their tenements “buildings.” They called One Hundred and Seventh Street “a Hun Seven Street” and their club, the Braves, a “gang.”
My “house” was located on the fourth floor of 319 East, “a Hun Seven.” Three other families had “houses” on my floor. The door to my “house” could be opened with a key that was over four inches long and one and a quarter inches wide. The door opened into the kitchen, the largest room in my “house.” The kitchen had one big window facing a back alley. Beneath the window was the bathtub; it had a metal cover when not in use. Next to the bathtub was the sink and next to the sink was the water closet. My small bedroom had a window facing the back alley. I sometimes saw Angela, my Italian neighbor across the alley, undressing herself with her shade up. My grandmother’s clothesline extended from my back window to Angela’s. We had a parlor with a piano and sofas.
The parlor had two windows. One window faced the fire escape