Sep 16, 2008

Bossy’s Favorite Things.

High rise living. Bossy grew up on the 19th floor of this high rise cluster in the middle of the city. The apartment was modest in size for a family of four, but made more expansive by its square usable rooms and floor to ceiling windows.

In this life, binoculars were as necessary as telephones. One peek determined if the people below were carrying umbrellas, or wearing scarves and mittens. Tracking tugboats and watching approaching storm fronts were just a couple of Bossy’s favorite binocular pastimes, along with spying on the NFL player who lived one floor up in the adjacent building.

In a way, Bossy thinks apartment dwellers are more connected to life– maybe because they’re not buried under projects that involve weeds and gutters and dank basements overrun with rusty paint cans.

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9 comments

1. 1
   on January 7th, 2009 at 9:18 am
   iambossy.com — The Daily Poverty Post. said:

   [...] When Bossy was first married, she and her husband moved in with Bossy’s father in Bossy’s childhood home which wasn’t a home at all but an apartment on the 19th floor. [...]


2. 2
   on January 22nd, 2009 at 10:04 am
   Bossy’s Favorite Things. | iambossy.com said:

   [...] just made that up. She doesn’t know why they wear cow bells, except to amuse those types who grew up on the 19th floor and have always had a thing for [...]


3. 3
   on January 22nd, 2009 at 10:17 am
   ~annie said:

   Awesome! I really think you might be on to something with that last paragraph. As a child I was always fascinated by high-rises and wished I lived in one. Maybe one day…


4. 4
   on January 27th, 2009 at 9:15 am
   The Return Of Ten-Word Tuesday. | iambossy.com said:

   [...] Bossy’s childhood window included a floor to ceiling view from the 19th floor, and the radio in the kitchen was probably a JVC boom box, but you know where Bossy is going with [...]


5. 5
   on January 27th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
   Sista #2 said:

   I always wanted to know what they looked like inside!!!


6. 6
   on August 18th, 2009 at 8:50 am
   Ten-Word Tuesday. The Landscape Edition. | iambossy.com said:

   [...] and her brother spent the majority of their youth living on the 19th floor of a city high rise, but throughout his life, Bossy’s brother seemed drawn to the idea of a house in the [...]


7. 7
   on September 16th, 2009 at 10:18 am
   The Toto of Oz | iambossy.com said:

   [...] ask her parents until they lost all will to live and were praying for a sudden tornado to whip their high rise up and [...]


8. 8
   on August 28th, 2011 at 10:04 pm
   Society Hill Philadelphia | iambossy.com said:

   [...] has written about this neighborhood before, but it never ceases to stop her heart when she has the chance to [...]


9. 9
   on January 24th, 2012 at 1:13 pm
   Angelina said:

   My mother lived there when she met my father (she was a nursing student at Penn). Every time I pass those places I think of her, and now I will also think of you!