Unbelievable

Earlier this week, I was sitting on a wall on Coventry, waiting for Zelda & Toni to come out of the custard place. Orson was zonked out in the stroller. It occured to me that it was on a June day, like this one, fifteen years ago, that I met up with my friend Rich to check out an apartment on Mayfield, right around the corner from Coventry.

Not counting a 12-month lease spent in Broadview Hts., I have been an East Sider for fifteen years.

Crazy. That building, the one I was facing, hadn't even been there fifteen years earlier, that was where the Cleveland Shop was, and Hunan's was in that building instead of up the street.

A frined of mine once told me, with glee, about the fire in 1992 that destroyed that building. She worked in the (former) Arabica next door, and as the firemen were doing their job, she and some fellow employees tore through the water-soaked basement and ripped off as much non-perishable coffeeshop items as possible.

Scott T. and I used to do a gig every week that summer at Chuck Mosbrook's Open Mic nights, right out there in "The Yard." We must have been terrible.

I can't say I miss those times. I didn't fit well, as a person, in my early twenties. Part of my job this time of year is interviewing new candidates for actor-teachers at GLTF, and I am always impressed with new graduates who actually have a clue as to what they eventually want to accomplish - or better yet, have no idea and more humility and awareness than I did at that stage in my life.

That, and the clothes were just awful.