My grandparents’ Latonia home shared a driveway with that of their next-door neighbors. Apparently, driveways were not a significant consideration when the houses were built. The space between the two brick homes did not allow for two full lanes. The solution was three stone treads spaced a car’s width apart.
From the street, my grandparents’ path was the center and right tread, and Neighbor’s was the center and left. In the backyard, the center tread, which straddled the property line, forked and led to separate detached garages.
Mamaw, my grandmother, and Neighbor were not friends. To him, she was a stubborn old woman who too freely spoke her mind. To her, he was a cocky young man who did not show her the respect she’d earned long before he was Neighbor. “He’s loud,” she would complain to the invisible audience in her empty kitchen. “Uhmph.”
I was a frequent visitor to Mamaw’s house on Locke Street. When my grandfather, Mac, was away on the railroad, I spent much of my time either sitting on my feet in front of Mamaw’s large color television or playing in the backyard with my Matchbox cars in the shade of a vast catalpa tree—alone, which, in retrospect, prepared me for the isolation of COVID-19.
Neighbor’s house was exotic. He had six or seven children of a wide range of ages, and they were always coming and going from the house, often accompanied by wild-haired friends. “It’s a carnival over there,” Mamaw would mutter. “Who in their right mind would have so many children?”
Occasionally, I was invited to play with Neighbor’s children in Neighbor’s backyard. I had to remain within sight of Mamaw’s kitchen window, and she couldn’t understand why I’d want to go over there with them. “Don’t you go getting dirty and track anything into my house,” she’d say.
Mamaw and Neighbor lived next to each other for decades. Their differences were apparent, and there was no lack of communication. While each needed to stay in his or her own lane, each knew the importance of the middle one—the common ground—that made their individual pursuits of happiness translated into “comings and goings” possible.