Short #3: Valley Stream
I moved into 4914 Valley Stream because I needed a place to live. Blake offered me a room in October of 2009 but I wanted for a more desirable offer. Then, my living arrangement with a married couple began to fray. And, I wanted to leave before the strain turned to hate. A few days after Christmas I decided to join Blake and my married friends happily helped me pack my belongings.
The house on Valley Stream was built just after the second world war, most likely for a veteran and his family. The Madison Park neighborhood, where Valley Stream Road is located, was considered the suburbs of south Charlotte in the mid 1950’s though today it is tucked behind an ever expanding line of high rise apartments and shopping centers. I’d wager the entire neighborhood will be bulldozed and rebuilt into something bigger and more modern by the 2050s.
In 2010, our little brick house showed its age and utility. The home sits square to the street with a sidewalk from the blue front door to the blacktop. To the left of the front door was a rather large uncovered patio we affectionately dubbed the stoop. It was not a stoop in the sense one might think of the steps outside a New York City townhouse or apartment building, but that’s what we called it. The stoop is a concrete pad trimmed in more red brick. A black wrought iron railing guarded the far side of the pad. Over the four years we lived at Valley Stream, we made memory after memory on that very stoop. It’s where we hosted parties, debated current events, and processed our lives late into the night while smoking cigarettes.
Inside the house were three small bedrooms, a working but mold-prone bathroom, and a galley style kitchen. A large great room connected the bedrooms to the kitchen. With the exception of the great room, none of the rooms were big enough to hold more than two or three people at a time. They were designed for young families or newly married couples. We were neither.
The true oddity of the house is the full height but unfinished basement down a staircase next to the kitchen. It was dark and humid with the walls painted in bright green, yellow, and red. I assume whoever painted it was Rastafarian or at least a Bob Marley fan. The basement housed our washing machine and dryer and boxes of old clothes. At night, I would get horror-movie vibes and tried to spend as little time as possible down there.
Behind our house was a rather untamed lot which sloped down to Little Hope Creek. We rarely ventured into our backyard for all the overgrown oaks, brush, and weeds. During the summer the lot was home to various southern bugs, squirrels, and a few tree snakes. Aside from these small critters, our backyard was also home to a couple of adult Barred Owls. They were silent and still and a sight to behold when they plunged down on their dinner.
Due to its age, 4914 Valley Stream had all the classic old home problems. Poor air circulation led to mold problems, excessive heat in the summer, and frigid winters. Cockroaches and spiders paraded inside through numerous cracks and holes. And the house lacked a proper driveway for our cars. One never realizes how convenient a driveway is until they don’t have one.
Despite all these issues, we loved where we lived. Better said, we loved all the other aspects of life on Valley Stream if not the house. Blake was a wonderful roommate and friend. Our neighbors and the life we shared was like what most Americans see in movies but never experience. We were a proper community. It was quite normal for a conversation among two neighbors to evolve into a gathering of five or six or ten people. Each person came and went as they pleased but not before adding their spice to the mix.
In addition to the neighbors, our location within Charlotte was downright awesome. We enjoyed the night life on Montford Avenue and shopped at Park Lane Shopping Center, all a ten minute walk from our front door and uptown Charlotte was fifteen minutes away by car…depending on traffic, of course. Lastly, it was cheap- our rent that is. We paid our landlord a grand total of $625 each month, with Blake paying the larger share due to use of the third bedroom as a home office.
To think, I didn’t want to live in that old dank house. I would’ve missed out on a lot of good living and joy. Thankfully, I did not.
