More Memories of Nana

Another memory came to me this morning as I read yesterday's post that mentioned Auntie Jay. In the late 1940's, Auntie Jay, Uncle Rocky and Jill, our cousin, lived in Glendale and right across the street from Nana's apartment building. So when we visited Nana, we visited our whole immediate family. And in the house right next to Nana's building, lived Jill's grandmother. This was a great old Craftsmen Style house with a huge front porch, complete with a "glider", a swinging seat, suspended from the ceiling of the porch. We all loved to sit on the porch and swing on that glider, often late at night, while our parents were across the street playing cards at Auntie Jay's house, which was actually a duplex, or maybe even a triplex?

And of course I have to mention Nana's apartment. The first thing you noticed was the smell. It wasn't unpleasant...it simply smelled like Nana's, and I have never smelled anything like it since. You entered a small lobby and the stairs were to the right; very elegant and wide stairs. Nana's apartment was 2 doors down from the top of the stairs. She had two doors to her apartment, but the front door was the second one. The aprtment was quite small, a living room, a bath and a kitchen. The walk-in closet had a Murphy bed, which fascinated me! I would bet that the apartment wasn't bigger than 200 square feet, at the most. Only one person could be in the kitchen at one time and the closet was bigger than the bathroom. And just down the hall was the trash chute. I would always volunteer to take the trash out so I could open the door to the chute and toss the trash...where did it go? And this building was quiet! You automatically lowered your voice as soon as you entered the lobby...it had that kind of power over us.