The Lost Negatives - Our Leominster Apartment

When Digital Equipment Corporation hired me in July of 1973 they put me up in a motel at the Searstown Mall (now called The Mall at Whitney Field) while I looked for an apartment. We settled on a rental on Manchester Street in Leominster,MA  which gave me a 30 minute commute to my job in Westminster, MA. 

It was an unconventional apartment, a conversion from an ice cream shop. We had great neighbors like "Al & Val" and the firemen twins. I've lost track of them but I hope they have fared well.

Our apartment was on the left, Al & Val lived on the right. I used to grill hamburgers on a hibachi in the front yard.

Manchester Street was a bit busier than I would have liked. Our white cat was hit by a car. I suspect he might have been deaf.

All the amenities of home, plants in the window, an air conditioner, shag carpet and a portable B&W television which would would lose audio during Columbo. Other furnishings not seen included a avocado colored refrigerator and a utility closet which had a huge hole in the floor.

Ginny at home working on a tapestry with a thunderbird design. I drew the design by projecting a photo on the grid and marking it with a pen. We didn't have a bed at first, just sleeping bags.

When I left the Navy they shipped my  belongings from California back to Connecticut. Most of these items I picked out of the dumpster from my apartment in Mountain View California.  Notice the lamps, they came right from the dumpster. I wasted no time setting up my amplifier and reel-to-reel tape drive so we always had plenty of music.

I still have that desk but mercifully the chair is long since gone. The shag carpet proved to be a problem when  it became infested with fleas that the cats brought in. I lost my security deposit.

By 1974 we were able to buy our own home but that is a post for another day.  Leominster was a good place for us, movies at Searstown, Italian food at  Monty's Garden (now closed), fishing trips with my car pool buddy Jon Parker and so much more.