As far back as I can remember my family and I grew up in Sunnyvale, California. California in of itself is considered snobbish because of how high class it may be in a way but where we lived it was very diverse and full of life. I grew up in these apartments that were named “Palm Villa Apartments”, we lived in apartment number 29 and there are a few things I want to describe about the apartment. The door was blue and on the left-hand side there was a kitchen area with the oven on the left and the stove on the right and right in the middle was the refrigerator. I remember one of my fondest memories I have was having to grab sour cream from the refrigerator and putting it on some saltine crackers. I also remember my kitchen was white with these blue lines that were outlining the kitchen. The cupboards were filled with our plates, cups, and various other kitchen accessories. From the time I can remember, we have had this sharp kitchen knife that has a brown handle that has been around since that time. We have also always had these cooking sheets that we have used since we had that apartment. We also went through various phones as we had the rotary phone that you had to dial one by one in order to reach the person that you were trying to reach. We also had a hand-held phone that you would carry around everywhere you went. My mom told me a while back that she misses those days because she had various memories about that apartment because we would all eat like a family and now that everyone’s a little older its harder to sit down and eat like a family. In the living room, we had a tan carpet that was held together by this rug that was huge and from time to time we would spill some drinks on there. We also had a TV by the living room that was so tiny that it could be held together by this tiny display.
Outside, we had a balcony which featured this blue paint and a grey floor that for some reason had a brown piece of wood that was hanging by the edge. I realized just now that the brown piece of wood was probably there to hang laundry which was located just down a couple of minutes by our apartment. Then there was our shower which was relatively small compared to other bathrooms I have seen. The best part of the apartment to me was the rooms which were made up of these two rooms where my brother and I had our beds on the room to the right and then we had my parents’ room to the right. My parents room had this big closet that was facing towards the bed and then they had their mirror that was on the left which also served as a sort of dresser. Then we had some decorations that they have kept for some time. We had a radio that my dad still carries to this day and then we had this mirror that they had as part of their bed frame. The mirror that is a part of the bed frame is something I still use to this day. Looking back on some of those pictures that we still have, I start realizing how much I would fight with my friend and I would look out to the window and wonder why we were upset with each other. As time has gone on, I start to wonder about the room that my brother and I had as young teenagers. In our closet, we had my clothes to the right and we had my brothers’ clothes to the left. Inside, we had a closet that held everything together essentially. Once we got a TV inside of our room, we were off and running.
We would watch our anime and our wrestling inside that room and we also got a VCR in there which also helped manners as well. As the years went on and my brother started dating girls and I would remember those nights when he would talk to them and that is where I started seeing how to talk to girls. The best memories I have of that apartment are when I gather all of my friends together and we would start wrestling. We would gather inside of the living room and we would all perform our favorite wrestling moves. I would perform the sharpshooter usually and the rest of my friends would all perform their top rope moves. The coolest thing about having that apartment was that anytime someone came over I felt that they were a part of the family and not just any old person. As the years went on, the apartment suffered from wear and tear and started to lose some of the plumbing that had been installed of the bathroom. We ended up moving out in February of 2002 to another apartment in the same complex but after it did not feel the same. We would all leave for school or work and I started missing that old apartment that was a part of our childhood. I started also noticing that once we left the apartment something was missing because our group of friends had gotten smaller. No longer would we go next door and go visit each other like nobodies business. This was something that my friend Adrian had commented a while back. I also saw that this apartment was a bit more separated from everyone else. Eventually, we lived elsewhere around the area but nothing will ever be lost because of that apartment, I still carry around a stuffed animal from that time we lived there and I just wonder what it may look like today with all the raising rents that are going on in and around the bay area. I hope that one day I can go back there in that apartment and just see what else is left in there
Just Another Day... 