Unless you’re just tuning in, you know we recently sold the HOA house. So naturally, the obvious question becomes, what’s next? But to just jump ahead and blurt it all out, well, it just doesn’t feel right to me. So instead I thought I’d go back to the beginning {this week and part of next}, with the help of some seriously dated photographs, and revisit all the homes we’ve lived in over the past 25 years. A kind of, I don’t know, how did we get to where we are today kind of series.
Starting, with our first apartment. 😉
I was 19, he was 24 and after knowing each other for a WHOPPING 6 weeks, one night we were sitting down with a map in front of us when I closed my eyes, swirled my index finger in the air and placed it on the map. I opened my eyes and what do you know… Cheyenne, Wyoming. I remember saying at the time “Hmmm. I wonder if they have a college there?”
I was supposed to be headed off to Indiana State University in a few weeks but at the ripe old age of 19, I fell for the guy behind the pizza counter.
I quickly applied to the University of Wyoming, and just like that, we loaded up our cars with everything we owned {clothing, stereo equipment, tv/vcr and cameras} and took off on our own adventure.
We had zero furniture, or linens, not even a pillow and to be totally honest, I don’t even think it occurred to us that we would need them. But hey, we had a paper map and a little cash, so what more could we possibly need?
We rolled into Laramie, Wyoming in the late afternoon, checked into a motel, grabbed a bite to eat and picked up the local newspaper. If I remember correctly, there were 2 furnished places available to rent in our price range {$300 a month}. So we decided to drive by both of them and take a look. The first place was in a trailer park next to the railroad tracks. And the second, was a ground floor apartment in the back of a triplex at the end of a dead end street of homes.
We chose the ground floor apartment.
{Our first Thanksgiving. With a chicken because we couldn’t afford a turkey.}
The 1 bedroom apartment came with a kitchen table, 2 chairs, a couch, 2 arm chairs, and a mattress on the bedroom floor {no box spring}. There may have been a lamp, but I’m not 100% sure about that. The apartment didn’t come with any curtains, so we hung up sheets to cover the windows and our dishes, silverware and 2 cooking pots came from the dollar section at the grocery store.
{Our first Christmas}
The carpet was a dark orange shag and during the entire 10 months we were living there, didn’t get cleaned once. We didn’t own a vacuum {or apparently didn’t feel the need to buy one} and yes, we wore shoes in the house.
Now if that doesn’t make you want to make you gag, I don’t know what would.
We spent almost all our spare time at the library or climbing the rocks at Vedauoo. I remember a road trip to Fort Collins, Colorado and one back to Washington state to visit my grandparents. But for the most part, we just stayed close to that tiny apartment.
The entire time we lived there, it was hand to mouth, and yet, it really wasn’t that big of a deal to us at the time.
Life, it was just so much simpler back then. 😉
~Mavis
P.S. How about YOU? Do you remember your first place? Wasn’t being out on your own for the first time the best thing ever?
More stories in this series:
- The First Apartment
- The First Mobile Home
- The First House
- The First Home in a Suburban Development
- The House with the Hardwood Floors
- The First House We Built
- The House Where This All Started
- The HOA House
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