Obsessive

After lunch at Crisfield's I walked up Georgia Avenue (to get there I walked along East/West Highway) and saw a few old standards from my past. Like Champion Billiards. I used to come here with my old friend R. and her brother I. and a variety of other folks throughout my high school years. I was never very good. And Champions was always a little rough around its edges. As I was taking this photograph a dude, also a bit rough around his edges, stopped right behind me. It made me a little nervous, so I turned towards him. A middle aged black man, greying but slim in rather ratty clothing. Probably not homeless but probably not a home owner either. Any who. He was all 'Champions has beeen around forever.' And I was all 'yeah I used to play here when I was younger'. And he was all 'you should check out the Majestic in City Place. Those Chines have done it up, you can drink and eat and play pool.' And I was all 'well thanks for the tip.' Then I didn't go. City Place, in my day, was a rather failed mall in Silver Spring. I remember going to its opening and it was all fresh and clean and chock full o' retail but as the years went by most of the A-list stores went elsewhere, leaving empty store fronts, Claire's Accessories and African incense stores. Throughout high school the only reason I ever went to City Place was to see a movie after bowling across the street. But, since I've been away, City Place and its surroundings have had a bit of a renovation gentrification overhaul. Or so I know from this dude's blog...it is so shocking, the photographs of this changed space, that I have no interest in seeing it. I'd rather it was still decrepit and worn instead of shiny and fake.
This is the building that made Tastee's move.
This little corner is where my feet stood while waiting for the bus in middle school. Three of us waited at this bus stop. R., G. and myself. G. and I were friends and R. and I had, at some point, been almost friends. We stood in a triangle: me at the far left, R. parallel from me but to the right and then G. most often stood across the street from us. We didn't talk in the morning.
To the left is a hill, at the top of it is my old home.

I remember this swing.
Beneath the bush, or nearby it, are the graves of a few of our pets: Aggie, Tibby and Chelsea. And others too, I think.




The yard and train tracks beyond it.