The Other Side

We just finished moving to the other side of Jerome (which isn't far as the town is so small). I have now lived in five places within Jerome and it seems that even with as small as this place is, each home has had its own wonderful and unique view.

We are now on what is called the Upper Hogback. Our view is of the town itself.

It seems everybody is moving right now - doing what I call the Jerome Shuffle. It goes like this -one person moves, their apartment becomes available and somebody who is looking to move up in quality or down in price grabs it. This in turn leaves their apartment open, and so on. The apartment we are in is actually a three-story house. It was built in 1914 and was used as a boarding house. All three floors have separate entrances. The house has never had an interconnecting interior staircase. It resembles many Jerome homes that were built to house the numerous miners at one time.

The house has been remodeled pretty extensively so it is difficult to tell what the original floor plan was. About the only thing original left is the foundation, some window openings and a few interior doors.

The neighbors over here are wonderful. The people on the left are friends, he is an artist and his sister is a musician. Met the people on our right while moving. I had heard he was a truck driver. Met him when I first pulled our old truck full of stuff to the apartment. He stepped outside in a bright red muumuu with lace. Here was this big burly guy with a southern accent, as sweet as could be, in his bright red muumuu, telling me he’d move his car so I could park closer. He slipped back into the house and a few minutes later came out in his clothes. I guessed he grabbed his wife’s clothes in a pinch. I have to say, I have seen him in that red muumuu now around five times.

Speaking of men in dresses, I saw another old guy from town wearing a flowered muumuu. Usually the guy is running around in his Speedos, so I guess it was a blessing. Maybe somebody should invent Man Muumuus. I suppose they are pretty comfortable.

In Jerome, men can get away with dressing as they please - it is an artist colony - nobody seems to care. Once I was sitting on main street waiting for a contractor for a project I was in charge of when a big man with a beard and mustache came by in pumps and a purse. He wasn’t my contractor but I later found out his name was Pearl and he was a construction worker. You just never can guess.