Whither Basements?

(Image from the appropriately-entitled ifinishedmybasement.com.)

Let me let you in on a little secret: I have only lived in one place that had a basement.  Basements are not that common in Texas, & most of my childhood & adolescence, I lived in apartments.  No, the first & only home in which I ever lived that had a basement was in Huntington, West Virginia.

It wasn't very large, & we primarily used it for storage, including overflow groceries, although going down to the basement to get more beans or whatever soon became a hassle, so we ended up just keeping extra stuff in the panty.  I remember it has an unusual smell, & was always a little chilly down there, & it flooded a couple of times, despite having what is called a "sump pump."  No one warned us about the flooding, so of course some of our things got wet.  I guess the sump pump was a bit defective.

When we moved to Kentucky, we almost rented a house with a large basement - one with a separate door, which made me nervous.  I prefer the basements that can only be accessed through the house.  & there we looked at some places here in Portland with basements, but the house we ended up buying did not have one.

Why do a show about basements?  Because I appreciate them.  How I would've loved to have had a basement in my youth!  A dark, damp place where I could read my comic books in peace & listen to David Bowie on headphones.  I would've loved a basement window where I would spy on the feet of people coming in & out of the house.  & if the basement flooded from time-to-time, well.  I probably would have my comics on high shelves, my records, too.  It would be mine, all mine.

Perhaps tomorrow's show is a radio tribute to the basement I never had.  Nonetheless, it will air from 8-10am on 90.3/98.3 fm Freeform Portland, online simultaneously at freeformportland.org.  That's right!  We're back on the schedule at our regular time!  It takes a while, it seems, to finish a basement.