| Dan and I
were never meant to live together. But I sure as hell did not want to
move back to Woburn Avenue! So when Dan made the offer to move in with
him, I carefully weighed my options. On one hand, my father's screwy
erratic behavior continued to drive me up the wall. And while it was
worth it to stay on Riverside - there was really nothing attractive
about moving to the house in Old Brooklyn. The place Dan had in mind was
above a bar on Pearl Road at Delora in Old Brooklyn. On the positive
side, the rooms were really big for a two bedroom and it was close to my
job at Peaches Records and Tapes at the Pearlbrook Shopping Center - but
that was about it. Dan had a knack for picking depressing places to
live.
I was not Dan's first
choice, his friend Raymond Zwick from James Ford Rhodes High School was.
Both were interested in becoming detectives and working together.
However, I'm sure Ray took one look at the place and decided that he
didn't want to live in a place that was one step up from a flop house!
They would remain friends, but living in a dump with Dan didn't appeal
to him. So, unable to find anyone else he felt comfortable with, Dan
sweet-talked me into it! It was one of the very few times Dan felt he'd
better not get on my case. He needed me purely to help him offset the
rent on the place. Dan never showed any proof of what he was paying for
the rent, nor what the utilities and telephone cost. I have a very
suspicious feeling I ended up paying three quarters of the monthly rent!
At the time I moved in
with Dan, it was late summer. Dan was working as an office manager at
Brooklyn Heating and Cooling as an office manager. Their building was
right next to the bar Dan and I lived above. Dan had got into a fight
with his bosses at O'Leary Assurance at the Erieview Plaza. In the
process, he threw away a good career and a beautiful office in the upper
part of the structure overlooking Lake Erie...dahhh! So now, he found
himself working in an HVAC shop in a non-descript old building with no
view whatsoever. Dan had hired a firm to find a better job - willing to
move anywhere in the country to get it. Months would go by before his
eventual success. Dan was barely holding his own at the "mom and pop"
HVAC repair shop. Dan wanted to be "king of the hill", but ended up
taking his order's from the repairman's wife!
When I asked Dan if I
could use the refrigerator, he told me it wasn't working! So I asked
about having it fixed - he said he wouldn't put the money into it. What
about the landlord? Wasn't his problem! So I had to subsist (not
kidding) on raisons and oatmeal and dried Lipton Cup-A-Soups made using
my little hot pot from college! Dan would have his dinner in the bar below or what he
bought from a fast food joint - and there would be no sharing - except
for an occasional small bottle of Heublines Cream Mix Liquors.
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