Exploding memories…

Nothing says July in Alameda like the blooming jacaranda trees and the 4th of July Parade! What shows they provide!

The first house my parents owned was in Fullerton. I think we moved there when I was about two. The oldest of my three younger brothers was born when we lived there. At the end of the street was an orange grove. Maxine, a lady with very exotic sunglasses, painted nails (hands and toes), bright lipstick, and a wild collection of flip-flops, who lived across the street, is my first memory of a neighbor.

Now, flash to Carl and me being the parents of an eight month old daughter, living here in Alameda, on Janis Circle. It was our first owned-home, actually a duplex, half a block from Edison School, off of Pearl between Santa Clara and Lincoln. (Maybe it should be declared an hysterical landmark….). I think Carl was racing on a sailboat to Hawaii on the Transpac which typically started around July 4th. He had quit his job working for a local yacht designer when Sutter was six months old and opened his own office in our laundry room. My job at that time involved teaching glider flying, which then evolved into airplane flying: commercial, multi-engine, instrument ratings, and flight instructor single engine land (vs. sea) planes.

For two days after July 4th, I had smelled wafts smoke. I’d walk around the perimeter of the house looking, sniffing, but just couldn’t find anything. One of my flying buddies had dropped by and as we were talking in the living room, a fire truck with siren blasting, rolled into the cul-de-sac. I threw Sutter into Mark’s arms and said “hold the baby while I find out what’s on fire!”

By the time I got to the other side of the duplex, the fire was out. Here’s what happened. The lady across the street, who walked her cat on a leash, (well she kept her cat on a leash but they never walked anywhere), looked over to our yard and saw the grape stake fence that separated our duplex from the one next door, burst into flames. It was about four feet from our tenant’s kitchen window. She called 911. For some reason she didn’t come over to let me or our tenant know something was slightly amiss, but oh well. Maybe the cat didn’t want to move.

Once the fire was out the firefighters found the cause. On the other side of the brittle grape stake fence, in our next door neighbor’s yard, was a dried out wood plant container with a dead plant AND the smoldering remnants of a bottle rocket, most likely launched the night of July 4. AHA! That’s what I had been smelling for 2 days.

Fireworks up close and personal have never been one of my favorite things yet I love a good professionally managed pyrotechnic show from a safe distance. But that event on Janis Circle was certainly not professionally done from a safe distance.

I am grateful the neighbor took her cat for a sit. I am grateful she had the presence of mind to call 911. I am grateful Mark dropped by. I am VERY grateful for the quick response of our fire department. I am grateful the bottle rocket didn’t land on our 30+ year old heavy shake roof. And I’m grateful Alameda outlaws fireworks. And disappointed that so many break the law.

Be safe.

Real estate this week in Alameda….