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04:21:2002 Entry: "The Continuing Saga of the Peterson Street Bungalow"
The Continuing Saga of the Peterson Street Bungalow
Marlee's post in the Ann-archy entry got me thinking about once when we rented the main floor of a cute little 20's bungalow (for only six months...long, sad, story) in Colorado. The landlords were creepy, but that really should be a separate post. For some weird reason, somehow--and I don't know how--we got put on the Welcome Wagon list when we moved in to it. Now this was 1985, and I had lived in Fort Collins (mostly with my parents) since 1971. Stan had lived in Fort Collins as a college student since 1979. We moved into an apartment together in late 1983 before we moved to the bungalow, so I have no idea why we got on a Welcome Wagon List at that time. It's not like we'd sign up for it ourselves or anything. I don't even think my mom was visited by the Welcome Wagon Lady when our family moved to Colorado. Maybe it was part of the Extremely Evil Disney Witch landlady's modus operandi (cast: Glenn Close with short corporate hair; Harry Dean Stanton as her henpecked landlord husband). The bungalow had the most incredible plant room in the front, so naturally, I filled it with plants. It was plant heaven. I sure miss that room. We converted the small dining room to a studio; I covered the floor with cardboard to avoid getting art materials on the carpet. We visually divided the dining room from the living room (which included a very nice second hand couch we found at Salvation Army) with some of Stan's seven-feet tall and two-foot wide gothic paintings in a series called "The Guardian Angel Series" (I specifically remember one title--The Guardian Angel of Cabbages). When the Welcome Wagon Lady came, it was right out of The Addams Family. She really looked scared, like she'd walked into Gomez and Morticia's abode, a situation that she just wasn't prepared for. This just wasn't the typical suburban ranch that she was accustomed to. I remember her showing us all the goodies in her Welcome Wagon kit and telling us "newcomers" about the local businesses, and I'd nod my head and say "yes, I've been there many times." She was thoroughly confused. I remember she said something to cut the ice..."so...you like...plants...and...art..." I sure wish I had that episode on tape.
The picture above was taken of the aforementioned house in the fall of 2001 on our trip out to Colorado. It looks fairly similar to the way it did when we lived there in 1985, but then it was white with dark green trim. I don't like this new paint job.
1 Comments
LMAO...oh that was so funny! i always wondered what the Welcome Wagon was about! i bet your landlords turned your name in.....too bad you didn't have any roses in the plant room, that like needed pruning...and whilest she was talking to you, you snipped the ends off!
what a riot!
Posted by Lori @ 02/01/2002 11:36 AM CST