Whizzing Through America: Living Memories Tour, Innis Rd. - Columbus

I'm not sure that this place deserves a full entry, but however short, Becky and I lived here, the second floor on the end, right. We were both students at the time so this place was rent subsidized. (When we started making more money, unfortunately not that much more, the rent went up so much that it was cheaper to buy, the Norwood entry.)

I worked part time as a cashier at Sears Automotive in a mall that doesn't exist anymore. Since in my high school youth I had worked at a lumber yard, I applied for the job at the lumber yard right next door but didn't get it. The only questions I remember from the interview was: "What is this question mark for your middle initial? Don't you know your middle name?" I did and do, but admit my cursive capital "E," at least in my signature, looks a lot like a question mark. It's really just how the pen touches the paper as I scrawl my name. At least I'm consistent.

I then worked over the summer at a construction company, putting in footers. Since any house not started was not going to be able to get natural gas, there were a whole lot of footers to put in. (The construction crew would come in after us and build the basement concrete block walls to complete the start of the house.) Most of our work was between Morse Rd. and 161, but a few were even further north. Now I couldn't begin to guess which house I laid the foundation for. It was truly grunt work. The concrete often had to be moved from a single point, where the truck's extension could reach, all around the footer, the perimeter of the house. Most footers were four inches down and four inches up for a width of 16 inches. A couple of them were for truly massive houses and were six inches down and six up with a width of 24 inches. Whatever the size, it was a lot of concrete to move, in the heat.

Becky doesn't remember much about this place as she had one very bad memory while here, a really bad bout of the flu. I don't know what my excuse is. We were its first tenants.

One last memory: While I can no longer be exactly certain of its location, 3C or Sunbury, I am certain that it was a good thing that I had such a physical summer job. We discovered an A and W that had the most delicious root beer floats on those hot days. We couldn't afford to go as often as we would have liked but any more often would have probably rendered even my work ineffective. The few A and W's that still exist, and that one doesn't, just don't make root beer floats that taste as good. It may be my memory or it may be that I'm not nearly as ready for one as I was then. I certainly am not working any off.