Efficiency Apartment in Baton Rouge

Our first home lasted about a month... then the nice lady that we rented from passed away and the house went to her granddaughter. 

In July 1989, we moved to an Efficiency Apartment on the corner of Airline Hwy and Greenwell Springs Road in Baton Rouge. A Studio Apartment. One big room... with a tiny kitchenette. July in south Louisiana is HOT. Thankfully, I was able to cool off in the apartment swimming pool. The first few weeks we lived there, I would drive to Mom's house to use her washing machine and dryer and visit with her instead of using the laundromat at the apartment. My car had no AC.. didn't come with AC.. and it was just too hot to keep driving in that heat while getting increasingly larger in the belly. The first time I used the laundromat, the nice Mexicans who lived a few doors down 'adopted' me. If they saw me with basket of laundry, they would take it from me and empty the clothes into the washer, then the dryer and then even fold the clothes for me! Then they would carry the clothes back to the apartment.  Occasionally, they would knock at the door with various 'Mexican' treats for me to consume and pat the growing baby belly. The resident manager, his wife, and young daughter also adopted me. Several days a week, they would invite me up to their apartment to have lunch, sit and visit, or watch television. At some point during our stay at the efficiency apartments, Mike and I moved from the Studio Apartment to a One-Bedroom Apartment. 

I don't remember how long was at one or the other, the apartments were just 2 doors down from each other. One interesting neighbor I had was Price Leblanc. Boy was he a character!  In the evenings, he was often out cooking on the grill. A little group of us would eat the evening meal together and then sit by the pool and visit. 

Mike was rarely there for all this. He was working part of the time, and the majority of the rest of his time was spent 'doing his own thing' be it hunting, fishing or 'playing cops and robbers' as I called it back then. (He desperately wanted to be a police officer and insisted on volunteering as a Reserve Police Officer as often as he could, thinking that this was his 'way in'. Funny.. that particular department never hired him.  

Another neighbor was this really neat (American) Indian Lady. She had all these pretty dream catchers hanging around her apartment and colorful wind chimes outside her window. She was really into arts and crafts and occasionally we would have a 'crafting session' while we visited. 

For some reason I still don't fully understand and most likely never will.. Mike and his parents absolutely hated the idea of the Efficiency Apartments. So Mike's parents purchased a VERY used trailer and had it moved to a cow pasture located off of LA 22 in Sorrento. After weeks of cleaning this trailer (the person they purchased it from was not a very clean person, and they smoked a LOT, so it stunk to high heaven), Mike and I moved from Baton Rouge to Sorrento. I think this was sometime in October.