My parents bought a house three years after arriving in the US with a few dollars in their pocket, not a word of English and three kids under the age of twelve. When I told my seventh-grade teacher Mrs. kalmires that i needed to change my address she said that she was sad to see me go. When I told her that my parents had bought a home a few blocks away her eyes widened like she couldn’t believe it.
The house was old and had its share of problems but we were finally out of my uncles’ basement. My father was not a handyman. There is no need to acquire skills like hammering pouring concrete or electrical and plumbing while tending sheep. My two uncles, on the other hand, could do anything. Uncle George had a pit in his garage on Meade Street aka the white house. From there he could work on his car. He had spent his early years before leaving for America as a heavy equipment operator. My other uncle, Miko, Jimmy, Jim, Tripsiana, was the king of concrete and metal. He worked as a blacksmith in Levidi as a teenager.
They worked well together. Uncle George doing electrical and uncle Jimmy doing the plumbing. They build many basement apartments where newly arrived immigrants had a place to stay.
When my neighbor of Polish decent put up a dormer on a Saturday a few years ago my first instinct was to turn them in. After all, they must go through proper channels to put up an addition. remembering what my uncles had done in the past put a smile on my face and I went on my way. When I returned home at the end of the day the project was complete. There was no sign of anything had happened. new window new roof new siding gutters doorbell. Another apartment were immigrants can come and get their start. There have been many residents at that house from the Polish swim team to the single guy playing loud music in the middle of the night to stabbing his girlfriend on a Sunday morning. It’s not as bad as it sounds, I’ll fill you in on the rest of the story in a future post.
I prefer electrical over plumbing and anything over ten feet I’ll hire it out.
That’s it for today. Got to make the drachmas
and by stabbing I don’t mean the violent type.