Walttriznastories's Blog

I’M BACK

October 6, 2023 at 8:53 pm 1 comment

It has been quite a while since I posted on my blog.

But I’m back.

I plan to post a few portions of my memoir beginning with this piece about my youth and where I grew up.

Also, I will share my novella Elmo’s Invention.

Elmo’s Invention is a prequel to an earlier novella I wrote, Elmo’s Sojourn. Elmo’s Sojourn was published online by Bewildering Stories in 2006. Later, it was published by another publisher in a print anthology.

I sometime ago, purely by accident, found that the first two chapters of Elmo’s Invention were published in China in 2008. I have no idea how that happened.

At the end of Elmo’s Invention, I will provide a link to Bewildering Stories taking you to Elmo’s Sojourn. You will then have an opportunity to read the novellas in chronological order.

                                                 MY NEWARK EXPERIENCE

I was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey. I am often reminded that there is a Newark in Delaware, but they use a different pronunciation than the New Jersey version. I guess they don’t want to be confused with my Newark. Just conjecture.

Born in 1947, I lived in Newark until I was eighteen. That’s when I left for Oklahoma to attend college. Graduation was followed by four years in the air force.

Now a description of my Newark home.

Our dwelling was a two-bedroom flat in Newark’s Ironbound section. You entered through the kitchen. Then walk straight into the first bedroom, then straight into the second bedroom, and finally into the parlor. One long line of rooms. No doors between rooms. Total lack of privacy. There were six in my family when all was said and done. A tight squeeze with only two bedrooms.

I enjoy exploring page three of the Sunday New York Times’s real estate section and the dwellings for sale. Usually priced in the millions with many bedrooms and bathrooms and laugh at the downsides sometimes given for the houses. One often mentioned problem is the lack of a window in the bathroom. I realize now how good we had it. Our one bathroom had a window. The only drawback was it lacked a bath tub, shower and running hot water. No running hot water in my home. I thank my lucky stars that we had a window. I lived in that flat for eighteen years.

            In the summer air conditioning was supplied by an open window.

In the winter, heating was a challenge.

There were two stoves offering heat fueled with kerosene. One in the kitchen and one in the other end of the flat in the parlor. The stove in the kitchen kept the room cozy in the winter. No heat in the bedrooms and the stove on the parlor was useless.

I slept for years in the parlor in a single pull-out bed. I would drape my clothes on the stove next to my bed during the winter to get them warm. The stove could barely accomplish the task. During the winter ice would form on the inside of the parlor windows. Once it began forming on a wall. I laughed when a few years ago I saw a woman on the news complaining that during the winter she could sometimes see her breath in her apartment. Compare to the way my home looked, her apartment appeared a palace. I’m thinking, What’s your problem? Seeing your breath during the winter in the parlor with a stove was a common event.

This is a taste of my past.

More from my past will follow with entries from my memoir.     

Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: Bewildering Stories memoir, fiction, Ironbound, Newark, science fiction.