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List | Nov 07 2001

I’ve lived in exactly forty-two forty-four houses and apartments. Oddly I don’t know how this happened. One thing led to another until I found myself here, in Brooklyn, with forty-one forty-three behind me.

I could perhaps say what prompted me to leave one place for another, forty-one forty-three times, but that would explain nothing, or nothing important. What can be learned from a series of turns?

In the back flap of my address book, I keep a list of all forty-two forty-four places, arranged in chronological order. The list includes the dates I lived at each place, rounded off to the month. Between certain entries I’ve noted places I’ve stayed or trips I’ve taken after leaving one place and before moving to another. These have dates as well. The dates are important. I refer to the list often, wanting to know when something happened.

*

There are things I don’t understand. I feel I’ve always been the same person, even when I lived on Tremont Street, even before my sister was born, and yet I’m suspicious of this feeling. One forgets. One creates a past that makes sense in the present—which in turn keeps changing.

Maybe it’s different for different people. Probably it is. My sister, for one, remembers everything, and with matter-of-fact clarity. For her the past is neatly printed and arranged into clearly defined sections, with a first-rate index and four-color photography. For me it’s a room strewn knee-deep with un-dated papers, many having long since yellowed or smeered to the point of illegibility.

*

Characteristically I’ve forgotten when I complied the first list. I believe it may have been in Salisbury, Connecticut, where I stayed for a month with my then girlfriend. Wherever it was, I remembering having to call my sister to fill in certain dates from my childhood.

*

In the last ten sixteen years I’ve added eleven thirteen more places. Each time I’ve done so, I’ve been struck by how the last place on the list always ends with the word present. The list grows ever longer, but this word keeps sinking, anchor-like, to the bottom.

*

Date Place
12/60 - 7/65 Tremont Street, Phila., PA
7/65 - 12/75 Maxwell Place, Phila., PA
1/76 - 3/76 [Dad], Valley Forge, PA
3/76 - 4/78 Maxwell Place, Phila., PA
4/78 - 7/78 [Aunt Dee & Uncle Sam], Phila., PA
7/78 - 4/79 Souder Street, Phila., PA
5/79 - 8/79 West 59th Street, New York, NY
9/79 - 4/80 [Mom & Andrea], Phila., PA
4/80 - 10/80 Kingston Street, Atlantic City, NJ
11/80 34th Street YMCA, New York, NY
11/80 - 5/81 Park Slope YMCA, Brooklyn, NY
5/81 - 10/81 East 11th Street, New York, NY
11/81 West 72nd Street, New York, NY
12/81 - 3/82 East 84th Street, New York, NY
3/82 - 5/82 E. Quad back kitchen, Ann Arbor, MI
5/82 - 7/82 East 23rd Street, New York, NY
7/82 Piedmont Avenue, Berkeley, CA
8/82 [Ken etc.], Brooklyn, NY
9/82 - 2/83 Vicente Street, Oakland, CA
2/83 - 5/83 Channing Way, Berkeley, CA
5/83 - 8/83 East 11th Street, New York, NY
9/83 - 5/84 Lawrence Street, Ann Arbor, MI
6/84 - 8/84 Packard Road, Ann Arbor, MI
9/84 - 5/85 Division Street, Ann Arbor, MI
5/85 - 9/85 Hillegass Street, Berkeley, CA
10/85 - 11/85 [Eve], Hollywood, CA
12/85 [Various friends] Ann Arbor, MI
1/86 - 5/86 Michigan Street, Ann Arbor, MI
6/86 - 7/86 Travels w/ Gary
8/86 Arch Street, Ann Arbor, MI
9/86 - 11/86 Beacon Place, Somerville, MA
11/86 Trip to Ann Arbor
12/86 - 6/87 Beacon Street, Somerville, MA
6/87 - 8/87 Route 110, Tunbridge, VT
9/87 - 11/87 Beacon Street, Somerville, MA
12/87 - 3/88 Noe Street, San Francisco, CA
3/88 Travels to L.A., Santa Fe, Chicago
4/88 - 11/88 Rossmore Avenue, Jamaica Plain, MA
12/88 Travels w/ Lisel
12/88 Oak Street, San Francisco, CA
1/89 - 3/89 Glen Avenue, Oakland, CA
3/89 Various friends in Boston area
4/89 - 5/89 McBride Street, Jamaica Plain, MA
5/89 - 6/90 Cottage Street, Cambridge, MA
6/9 - 4/91 Jay Street, Cambridge, MA
4/91 - 7/91 Godforsaken bike trip
8/91 Travels w/ Monique
9/91 [Laura’s parents], Salisbury, CT
10/91 - 11/91 Travels w/ Monique & Laura
12/91 With friends in Boston area
1/92 - 10/92 Rugg Road, Allston, MA
10/92 - 11/92 Prospect Street, Cambridge, MA
11/92 - 5/93 Jay Street, Cambridge, MA
6/93 Scott Street, San Francisco, CA
7/93 - 10/93 41st Street, Oakland, CA
10/93 - 10/94 Northside Ave., Berkeley, CA
10/94 - 1/95 39th Avenue, San Francisco, CA
1/95 - 7/95 Armstrong Street, Jamaica Plain, MA
8/95 - 8/96 Fainwood Circle, Cambridge, MA
8/96 - 3/00 Harvard Street, Cambridge, MA
4/00 - 8/00 Saint Marks Place, New York, NY
8/00 - 9/02 South 5th Street, Brooklyn, NY
9/02 - 8/05 St. John’s Place, Brooklyn, NY*
9/05 - present Berkeley Place, Brooklyn, NY*

*Later additions.