LOCHLEVEN APARTMENTS
I visited the apartments I lived in 55 years ago, and I was surprised at how well they've aged.
From the street, they look just as they did a half a century ago.
The first difference I noticed was the low fence atop the concrete retaining wall. Civic codes were likely updated and required it. My choice would have been concrete bollards with stone veneer and wood panels to match the building siding between, tho..
I had a job sweeping the driveway when I was 13, so I noticed how spotless it was.
Our apartment was on the first floor. The annoying No Parking sign is new. The small, horizontal windows are bathroom windows. It was in our bathroom that two teenage boys, one of whom was wearing a spooky Halloween mask and wielding a butcher knife while the other produced eerie sound effects, terrorized their father in the shower just weeks after having seen Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho". It was surprising how good-naturedly he took the prank.
It was a studio apartment. Our furniture consisted of a picnic table, a bookcase made of boards and bricks, a small table and two aluminum cots for my father and brother. I slept on the floor in a sleeping bag.
Rather than high-rise buildings and a park, this view from the corner was once of Bellevue Junior High.
