Getting to 36 Upton St.

I'd been in the Boston area for about six months (via Willimantic, CT en route to California, but that's a story for another time.) Having lived in Brighton in a roach infested rooming house, and then with an insane drunken young married couple and their kid and dog, I needed a new place to live. I was a naive nineteen year old girl who had been living away from home for two years already, a late baby boomer disappointed to not have been a teenager in the "Peace and Love 60's", a stubborn survivor incapable of admitting to anyone that I could not take care of myself. I was looking for a communal type living situation that I could afford. I had saved $100 babysitting my roommates kid, and was going back to college at Northeastern in a few months. After a number of false starts and awkward interviews to be other people's roommates, (I was extremely self conscious and projected false bravado to protect my insecurities) I landed an interview in the South End with a group of people that sounded promising. The room was only $75 a month, I could walk to Northeastern - 36 Upton St. The place, and the people I would meet and become involved with, would profoundly influence me and set the stage for the rest of my life.