Renting in Calgary, am I right? Most (illegal) basement suites are renting for over $1000/month, smaller, older single family homes are being torn down and replaced with behemoth infills, and inner city apartments went ‘condo’ years ago.
Twenty (cough) years ago, I was fresh out of high school and ready to LIVE ON MY OWN LIKE A GROWNUP. Because of course, grown ups eat nothing but ramen noodles and spend all of their extra income on beer. It’s the price of adulthood. I settled in the Mission area, worked as a barista (before that word was invented maybe? I dunno), and recklessly dated. It was fun, and it was affordable.
This is a visual history of the places I lived in between 1989 and 2000*. Consider it a history lesson for you youngsters. I don’t know how you do it, still working as baristas with your $12 cocktails and $1000 rents. I hope you are at least still dating recklessly – that’s free!
*Some names and details have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty. And thank you to Google Street view for the pics. My 20s existed before digital cameras.
First. Apartment. Ever. (And second apartment ever too!) – 1989 – 1991
You may recognize this apartment, as it sits smack in the action on 17th avenue. This was the very first place I ever rented. It was the summer of 1989, and I was between 11th and 12th grade at Western Canada High School. My best friend and I somehow convinced our parents that it would be a great idea to spend our summer vacation working shitty jobs and living on our own. The one bedroom apartment was big and bright. There was no buzzer, so we rigged a little hand bell with a string tied around it that you could tug on from the ground floor outside our 2nd story window. I worked at Bagels and Buns (now defunct) and rolled pennies to buy ramen noodles. It did make me pretty popular with the teenage busker crowd that I had my own crash pad. I slept in the living room.
In 1990, after I graduated I moved back into the apartment building, one floor above my old place. By now, the Ship and Anchor had opened its doors. Enough said.
My favourite apartment – 1991 – 1995
The Aquadale is now condos, but back in the day it was a great two-story walk up with a more modern set of apartments attached at the back. I lived in the top right suite. I made several fancy renovations to this place – I installed stick-on black and white tile in the kitchen, and painted the entire window-less bathroom a deep emerald green, which made it very difficult to accurately see how well I was applying my makeup. My tool box was a screwdriver (which also served as a hammer). At first I moved in with a girl who my ex had dumped me for. That deteriorated quickly. During the fight where she was trying to drown me in my own toilet, our neighbour underneath came up to find out what the noise was all about. A gruff old guy with a serious knowledge of music, he wouldn’t speak to me for a year (something about me playing Barenaked Ladies’ Gordon album too loud ) but we later became good friends.
Once I was living there alone, I decided to make the living room my bedroom. I went to Ribtor and bought copper pipe and chain and tons of fabric and suspended a sort of canopy from the ceiling above my bed. It was the bomb. Also, while living there my rent went DOWN from $325/month to $310. I honestly can’t remember why I moved out of there.
Riverside Living – 1995
Nope, not this place, but an old apartment building that used to be right there. It was right by the river at the bridge to Lindsay Park. I slept outside on the lawn once. Wasn’t knifed!
The Barnhardt – 1997
I lived in Austin Texas from 1995-97 and when I returned I nabbed a sweet gig waitressing at a very chic and expensive old-school restaurant. I decided to splurge and got an apartment at the Barnhardt. It was a costly $525/month – almost as much as renting at The Anderson (still my dream apartment). I lived there on a blow up mattress surrounded by my meager possessions I had hauled back from Texas. I moved out when I quit my job after being goosed by one of the waiters. It was a lovely place, though Electric Avenue was in its death throes at the time, and on weekend nights it felt like there was a drunken bro screaming at the foot of my bed.
My worst apartment – 1997-98
Now demolished. I had to crawl over my bed to get to the bedroom. I watched the footage of Princess Di’s death on a 6″ black and white portable tv. I was beginning my university studies. I was hella poor. I think the rent was $295.
End of an era – 1998-2000
A friend was living above what used to be the convenience store on this block. He was moving out because it was too hot. When I moved in, I turned off the radiators. But it did get really freaking hot in the summer above all of the refrigerator units in the store below. How hot? The tiles in the kitchen were shrinking. This apartment marks the end of my wild and crazy days. My daughter was born while I lived here. She often reminds me that she spent her first few months ‘living in a closet’ which I remind her was a very roomy walk-in. The toughest part of living here with a babe-in-arms was the daily haul of bike and carrier up and down the stairs, because I did not then, and do not now, drive a car.
After living in this apartment, I began renting houses to accommodate my new family. That will be chapter two. Stay tuned!