Memories of my childhood home - Los Apartamentos _ is the result of Jason's Crouch contest in Activerain. I grew up in the first planned apartment complex built in Bogota, Colombia. Even back then "La Carrera 30" was a busy street. My group of apartment buildings were made with brick exteriors and the neighborhood next door had white walls.
We lived n in the red buildings. There were three buildings a 15 story "La torre" (The tower) a group of building with 3 or four stories "Los Planos" ( The flat buildings) and the building where I grew up with 8 floors. ( Can't remember if it had a nick name.) We lived on the top apartment, and as there was a Mezzanine ( The second floor seems that had been intended for.... who knows what) we really lived on the 9th floor. I lived there, until I was eleven, and although it was a small place, and I had to share a room with my sister, as of lately I have been homesick for "el apartamento."
I don't know at what point we got a guard in each building, but until then we had to ring the door bell to have some one let us in. There was a an area with grass where we spent a lot of our time as children. My brother and his friends played soccer, and we loved to rolled down a small hill with my best friend's Suzy. There was an underground parking lot, but I don't remember going in there very much. On top of the under ground was the regular parking lot, and on top of that was a terrace where we also got to play. On one corner there was one plant. This plant made popcorn. We would steal the matches to go burn the seeds and they would turn in to good tasting popcorn. Before, I tell you about a true stories of life and death in this time of my life, let me tell you about the actual apartment.
To go up you rode what today would be considered a tiny elevator. To go down, I loved to jump as many stairs as I could and get to the first floor before my brother. He is a year older, so I can't think of a time that I beat him.
The apartment front door was made of thick blurry glass. There was a foyer where my Mom had the telephone table-chair and a beautiful mirror. To the right was the kitchen with a swing door and past this was the laundry area (no clothe's washing machine for many years) and then the maid's room.
Going back to the foyer; if you walked straight as you came in the door behind the large mirror was the living room and to the right the dining room. Off the dining room the balcony. From the balcony you could see the main avenue, and it was a favorite place to throw things at the passer by's. Water and dirt were the favorite items. I can't remember the number of times that we got in trouble because we got caught. Here is where my Dad would sit on Saturdays to read. Going back to the foyer, to the left of the front door was a hall way. It led to the three bedrooms and two bathrooms right next to each other. No Master bedrooms there. The floor was made of a black material; probably vinyl. My Mom carpeted the entire apartment, so that the neighbors downstairs would stop complaining about us children running and screaming. Even the bathrooms had carpet. My mother has always had impeccable taste, so our little apartment was beautiful.
The tower was the corner building bordering the 30th and 26th streets. On the street floors of "La Torre" my Mom had a boutique right at the corner where she sold women's clothing. One day , she heard a commotion, and went to see what was going on. People were gathering and yelling in front of our building, and everybody was looking up at the top of the building. Well, it turns out that my 4 or 5 year old sister decided to take a stroll on the window ledge that connected the windows of our 9th story apartment. My 3 year old brother and me at around 2 years old were following in tow. Of course, none of us has a recollection of this, but the story was told for many years, and people knew who we were because we all survived. ( I believe the baby sitter was fired ).
Memories of my childhood home - Los Apartamentos was first published on Hampton Roads Real Estate Voice
Copyright © 2009 By Tere Rottink, All Rights Reserved.*Memories of my childhood home - Los Apartamentos
