I guess I have talked about the neighborhood I do live in before. But I never got to talk about the neighbors I have.
My family had lived in the same apartment building for the past 30 years. Wow to think of it, it's even longer than I existed. There are 8 apartments in the building we live in. Three of them are half-empty & the owners only drop by when they come over to Tehran (tow lives aboard & one in a south-western city of KHORAM ABAD)
This fact leaves only 5 settled-in flats in the building, three of which (including ours) are occupied by the families who had been here over the last 30 years like us. & the other tow family neighbors are pretty new, one just moved in a year ago & the other 2 years back.
We live like a very big family.... I mean we have our privacy & all but in times of trouble we look out for each other. Living together for so long the new generation, as I may put it, has grown up together. I had babysat for my baby-sister as well as the twins who just live downstairs.... The twins & my sister are as old my sis & they are best friends actually. I, Elsie & Ethan are friends too. Elsie is the oldest among us, going on 26, then it's me being 24 & the youngest in the threesome is Ethan, 22. Through the years we learned all about our weaknesses & strength. We had fought, played, laughed & cried together... & we share a history that is hard to ignore. We had been there the first time each one of us fell in love, or when we had our hearts broken.
Elsie had to move out for a year to complete her study in pharmacology. She left this very summer & now she is back for a visit. While we were over at her place, Ethan said something that is carved in my memory; that somehow made me think of how precious this people are to me.
He said: "could you even imagine a day when we all grow up & return here only as guests?"
By the way; last time I used chalks & Black boards is going back to the time I was a third grader.... We Have White boards here... Too bad I am in love Chalks & Blackboards....
Thursday, November 18, 2004
The neighbors
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2 comments:
Your neighbors sound really nice. Elsie and Ethan sounds like very English names. Is that unusual for Iran?
Anyhow, thank you as usual for sharing a slice of your life with me. I always particularly enjoy your posts.
Over the years from 1955 to 1967 my family and I have lived in 3 different large apartment buildings in three different cities. We never really got to know any of the people who lived right next door. In 1974 we moved to a small farm and within weeks we knew everyone within ten miles of our farm. Of course, I met many of those people because I was teaching at the local high school.
Just before I retired from teaching the principal tried to have whiteboards installed in my classroom. I absolutely refused to have them. I liked the smell and feel of chalk and chalk dust. The smell of whiteboard markers always made me feel a little ill.
Calgary is the nearest large city to where I live. It's about one million. Last Saturday there were more than 15,000 at a feast to mark the end of Ramadan. I had no idea that there were so many Muslims in Calgary.
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