Landlord Wars....1970s...Concord, CA

I was a single/single mother in the 1970s & 1980s.  I say single/single because single mother/single income....mine. If you are too young to have been alive during this time then you should know a few things. First, there were not a lot of fast food companies, therefore there were not a lot of unskilled jobs available; day care was almost non-existent, had no regulations, and there were no government subsidies for single/single mothers.

I rented a condominium on Mohr Lane in Concord, California.  Anyone who has lived in Concord may remember the condos on Mohr Lane, but nearly every town has condos with the same building pattern as Mohr Lane.  Four apartments in a small clustered cube; one completely downstairs/carports on the back, two  built on the sides like townhouses which offered two levels to each unit; and a unit entirely upstairs above the carports.

My unit had horizontal blinds, the AC didn't work, and there were no screens on the windows. I asked to have the AC charged & the owner/landlord replied with a big fat no.  I requested screens so that I could control the wildlife's access to my home; another big fat no.

The area was prone to heat waves a couple of times throughout summer.  The heat was not as bad as Sacramento, or Redding with waves as high as 105 degrees or more, but being born and raised in the SF east bay area the temps of 99 degrees with no breezes were uncomfortable & exhausting.

I was working as a bartender, waitress, door person at a local disco.  I would come home exhausted.  One summer my little boy went on vacation with my parents for a couple of weeks.  This was a gift from heaven because I wouldn't have to chase babysitters.  During my 2 week mommy furlough I came home to an extremely hot apartment.  It was still daylight outside, so I opened the non-screened windows out of survival and I decided to fling open the front door to get a cross breeze hoping the air would cool faster.  I laid on my bed under a window with a fan blowing cooler air on me.

I had no intention of falling asleep, but I did and when I awoke my home was completely dark. As I turned on the closest lights I could see several sets of animal eyes reflecting in my kitchen. This was very concerning to me.....nooooo.....it scared the bejeebers out of me until I realized as they ran out of my home that they were neighborhood cats.  I think they were more frightened of me than I was of them.  I am a total cat person but when other peoples cats come in, raid my kitchen, scare me to death and use my cats litter box I think I need to get real and take control over my environment.  By the way, I never saw any of those cats again. I saw my cat a few times after that, but he was probably grazing in someone else's kitchen.