Hidden Hummingbird

I lived in three houses as a child. The first one I don't remember at all. It was at 1111 Adams Street. The third one I lived in for most of my first eighteen years, as we moved there when I was almost four.

The second house was on Gobel Street. I remember vague things about it. You could walk a loop from the front room into a bedroom, into my bedroom, into the kitchen, and back into the dining area/front room. At least I think that was how it worked. Somewhere around the back door, there was a bathroom. I don't know where. The basement had cardboard nailed up for walls, instead of sheet rock or plaster. The laundry room was in the basement and so was a roll away bed in the guest room. I was kind of scared about spiders down there. I used to jump from what I remember as the stairs, but was probably the doorway onto the bed to avoid any spiders (or monsters because those were probably down there too.) Then I'd stare at a fist sized hole in the cardboard watching for spiders to come out of it.

There was, and still is, an alley behind the house. I remember going through the alley to get to the neighbors since the houses were built into a hill and there were too many steps to go in and down and up and in through the front doors. In fact I recall lots of stairs of varying types on the houses on that street. Some were all cement, like ours. Others were built from wood and you could play underneath the landings.

One day that is truly a lost piece of my mind was the day of the drunken hummingbird.

Apparently the hummingbird nectar fermented in the neighbors feeder and became happy hummingbird juice. While I was over playing, they discovered a passed out or maybe fluttering around drunk bird. I am told I held the bird in my hand for a moment. Pretty awesome. Too bad I can't remember doing it.



My hands were smaller, but probably not cleaner.