(image from Google Maps)
It's really a shame to see that this delightful four-plex on the eastern edge of Hyde Park in Austin (it never really felt like Hyde Park) is now called Hyde Park Place. The entire time I lived there it was referred by me & my myriad roommates as "Chateau Depew." The back unit that's jutting out there on the left, that's where I lived, although my room was in the back & the window was added after I left.
Gosh, I think I lived there from the beginning of 1994 till the end of 1999. I'm trying to remember the names of all the roommates I had - & I lived alone there for quite a stretch too - Russell, Richard, Meredith, Mike. There was a girl who stayed there for the summer who was having trouble getting a visa to stay in the country - she was Indian - I have forgotten her name. A woman named Anne who now absolutely hates me stayed for a while. A woman named Tracy who went off to Hollywood at some point stayed with me for like three days when she was in-between houses. I would invite people to stay whenever.
The five years I was there were the longest I ever lived in a single place in my life. I got my first real full-time job - it's actually the only real full-time job I've ever had - while I was living there, & I also got started at KVRX while I was living there. I got my first pet, a lovely but sickly cat named Blue Boy, while I was living there. Blue Boy died of complications from feline leukemia in late 1999 & at that point I felt like I needed to leave. There was also water damage that needed to be repaired because of a leak & the landlord probably wanted to fix it & then charge more exorbitant rates. When I moved out in late 1999, Austin had almost 99% occupancy & he probably doubled the rent after repairs (& putting in that window).
I was very lonely at Chateau Depew. My relationship with the first woman who really loved me ended in 1994, really barely after I moved in, & though we managed to stay friends for a little while, eventually she tired of me. I made a lot of friends at KVRX & I would also date women who called my radio show - although I would invite them up to the station to meet me, knowing a homely boy like me wouldn't fare well on a blind date. In fact, I started deejaying at KVRX in August 1994 & I stopped in August 1999 - the entire time I had my first radio experience, I was at Chateau Depew.
One thing I was proud of - the thing that didn't get my 100$ deposit returned - I felt bad about this but didn't have the skills to actually clean this - was a wall collage I started in 1994 that eventually covered the entire east wall of my living room. I was inspired by the collage in Prick Up Your Ears although I didn't mutilate library books to create it. Here is a composite of what it looked like:
Sorry it's not more artfully put together. It's late, this is the best I can do right now. The picture is dated December 1999, so I suppose this was the whole thing - I would move out a few days later.
Gosh, looking at that & thinking about that place - I suspect nearly every girl I ever kissed - not all of them, but most of them - I kissed in that apartment. But really I was very unhappy most of the time, I would try to escape as often as I could. I discovered the internet while I lived there, but had a terrible connection at home, so I'd go up to my work, even in the middle of the night, just to chat with folks & look around the web. & of course I'd be near KVRX, which was on campus.
Why do I feel so strange about looking at that place, looking back? It was now over twenty years ago. I guess it's because I feel I became an adult in that place, even if I were basically still living like a kid in college. But I was still so fucked up, & although it wouldn't quite cure me - I'm still something of a mess - it would take the next place I'd live in for me to become more like I am now, for me to start becoming what I have ended up as.
