Living here and there

Some people have moved around a lot, from city to city, state to state, country to country. Have you lived more places than enough ?, or are you a few moves and done?.

This writer haven’t given a lot thought to the many places lived until lately, most friends were a bit surprised at the number of places we moved around in Washington, DC which is section off largely by Northwest, Northeast, Southwest and Southeast within those sections we have eight wards and within that we have name areas like, Capital hill, Ledroit Park, Tenleytown, Shaw, Woodridge, Ivy City, Benning Heights, East Over, Logan Circle, Anacostia, Brookland, Chinatown to name a few of over a hundred or so name areas

Sometimes we moved having to avoid eviction or as we called it: being sit out on the street, sometimes we journey just several blocks away, often with little furniture or no furniture, luckily many places then had furnished apartments available, there were areas we could not afford or would be unwelcoming in, to put it nicely, Washington DC as the country as a whole was lesser towards people of color/negro during most years/times when we moved around a lot.

While not going into all details of our families, my book Crumbs has more details. Places were we lived without attracting some maybe undo attention to some current residents, no listing of the exact address on the street(s) , if you live in DC, you’re likely know some of these areas or even lived there before or now.

This writer was born in the twelve hundred block of Carrolsburg Place South West,, near South Capital and M streets, we were blessed, my mother was in her mid pregnancy with me when she was struck by a car, as she attempted to crossed M Street SW. we were hospitalized for months.

Have you lived many places around your city, state?, we did a lot, from my birth place to 1st and I Street NW., 400 block of K Street, NW, 1300 and 1500 blocks of P Street NW, unit block of Logan Circle NW, 1300 block of 13th Street NW , 1100 block of 10th Street , above a grocery store on 12th and R Street NW, Tenth and Massachusetts Avenue NW, some of these may not be in the exact order but very close.

On thirteen Street NW, a friendly police officer would sometimes ask us to watch over his hat or blackjack he hung on our fence as he directed the on going traffic yards from our residence, at Massachusetts Avenue,we stayed across the street in the park and returned after sunset when we were put out, many good and not so good memories.

After living over a barbershop on 9th and P Street NW, we moved again, there was a used car lot at 8th and O street NW, a DGS grocery store, across from it, where we could get credit and the fame O Street Market around the corner from where we lived on the 1400 block of 8th Street NW, we attended Cleveland Elementary School, attended the Immaculate Conception church at 8th and N Street, while we lived in the Shaw and Ledroit section of DC.

Our moves may be close to a record for DC’s moves, we weren’t finished yet. Our next residence was in the 2400 block of S Street NW, we attended Adam’s elementary school, a great school for our time there, we could bring home instruments, sang Christmas carols while riding around part of our city on a bus/streetcar, it had children from many different cultures, sadly it was one of several times we would be evicted from our residence.

Then there was the 1900 block of Capital Avenue, NE, 3300 block of Holmeade Place, NW, 3400 block of 4th Street, SE, 200 block of H Street, NW, 1700 block of Corcoran Street, NW, 1300 block Riggs Street, NW, 1000 block of M Street, NW, 1100 block of N Street, NW, 1100 block of 11th Street, NW, 1400 block of Columbia Street, NW, 1300 block of 9th Street, NW, .

We made the news paper on Holmeade Street, in a landlord dispute, at Simon school in South East, a largely white school at that time, we were often called racial slurs. We sometimes went back to schools we had moved away from then back to the same area again, we attended Cleveland, Grimke, Garrison, Adam’s, Walker Jones, Bruce, Crummell, Sumner and Thompson over our elementary school days.

How many places have you lived in your city or state?, would be nice to know if you’re been moved around as much as we did, before settling down, yes there’s a bit more for me , 1800 blocks of 5th Street, NW, 400 block of Florida Avenue, NW, 1300 block of Holbrook Street, NE, 1700 block of West Virginia Avenue, NE, currently settled for over four decades in the Woodridge section of our Nation Capital.

Crumbs available @ http://www.outskirtspress.com/crumbs