Blast From The Past

I just dropped off J at tío D's house for music. His apartment, as most of you know, was originally my father's, then mine, then C's and now his. There are many memories there to say the least. As soon as I got off of the subway with A in the ergo and J holding my hand, it seemed like we were in the middle of a choreographed trip down memory lane. First I saw the deaf man. For years this elderly neighbor entertained me with his mute slapstick communication. All of his stories were about him not being married, not having money, and dying soon. There were pretty much only three gestures involved in his   tales. He was crossing the street and did not see me. The we saw Mehmet, the Turkish fruit stand guy who used to give baby M a free banana every time we passed. When I lived there I began to find ways to avoid that corner, for I felt very guilty taking so many bananas for him and he would not take no for an answer. J wanted to go over to him but not to say hello. I said we were only going if he was going to  say hi. During this tug of war Mehmet noticed us and called us over. One free banana for each kid. He remembered J's name and asked about M and my sister. What a memory! As we proceeded down 94th Street, another neighbor appeared. Our next door neighbor with a hoarding and garbage problem but lots of wigs smiled to me as she hobbled up the street. Remember her? Finally on the stoop was the once handsome and super skinny drug dealer neighbor. His parents were nice, his son so sweet, and he was always up to no good. Skinny dealer is now fat dealer and I imagined how many visits to McDonald's it took to get so heavy so fast. As if on cue, he asked J to give him five and said "what's up little man?" liked he used to say to him four years earlier when he was in a stroller. D's apartment looked pretty good. I opened the closet to get out my wedding albums and found them in three seconds. So many items in those closets. Who knew how good we had it when the walls were plastered with storage space. One day I will have to go over there to deal with my belongings. For now, four years and two kids after moving out, it was nice just to stroll into that previous life, with so many old characters in place, just for a little while.