ONCE, I WAS A SLUMLORD

Reading Michelle Tea's memoir, HOW TO GROW UP (PLUME / Penguin, 2015) is making me remember some of the things I did in my early 20s to survive.  Like, I graduated into the early '80s in New York City where, among other things, apartment rentals were (still are) scarce and expensive. My first post-college income was (if I recall correctly) about $8,400 a year. So, how to live?  I started getting the leases to apartments.  I would sign a lease for, say, a three-bedroom and then rent out the other two bedrooms at a price that would cover or nearly cover my one-third share of the rent. It could have been dangerous as I lived with the strangers who would come to share my abode but, thankfully, nothing along those lines happened ...

Like Michelle Tea, I loved the very first apartment I had that I didn't have to share with anyone.  And loathed having to give it up to go back to a rental share ...

I'm sometimes surprised I survived my early twenties.

Anyway...

I'm glad Michelle Tea survived to write this memoir.