unrelated to the photo: I used to have a junk shop in New Hampshire, in a building that used to be a restaurant so there were all kinds of weird rooms. I slept in the old walk-in cooler. the landlord didn’t care.
Upstairs was a flop house, a few guys from the Navy Yard lived there, a crazy guy, and Clyde. Clyde was in his sixties, chain smoked, and stood no taller than a pack of cigarettes. Man he was a little guy. But he was the boss upstairs. Collected rent for Lenny, the owner. Clyde’s room had the window that overlooked the road. He had a refrigerator in his place too, and a stove. All in one room. Along with some green bird in a cage. Clyde kept a crock pot going and always offered me whatever was in it. He liked people.
The rest of the men shared a microwave in the hall. There was a toilet in a closet out there, and a stand up shower stall. Just the one for the eight little rooms.
The crazy guy had white hair done up in a pompadour, and a red face. He wore a new winter coat around, and stood out in the cold swearing at people and things. I said Hi once, he said, “I TOLD YOU PEOPLE TO LEAVE ME ALONE!”. That was the end of that.
The Navy Yard guys were quiet, just wanted to come home and adjust the rabbit ears, climb into bed and wait for tomorrow. Only one guy ever came into my shop, that was Kevin. He had been in prison, and learned to draw very life-like nude women there. Now he was working on a loading dock for a computer place. He walked to work. Sometimes he’d stop in and I’d sell him old lp’s or porno magazines. One night I had the lights on late and he came down with his drawings. He’d drawn them perfectly, in pencil, right down to the folds of their labia.
Lenny, the landlord, had a little workshop in the basement, and I’d go down and find him asleep in his easy chair. He didn’t like to admit he slept down there. One afternoon he came in and told me one of the fellah’s had died, and if I wanted to help clean up, I could have whatever stuff I could sell for the shop.
Lenny and I went in, the body had been removed and someone had gone through all the drawers. I had never seen so much porn in my life. Take out food wrappers and porn. Nudie playing cards, nudie magazines, and styrofoam cups. Stacks of napkins. Kevin poked his head in and asked for some magazines. Lenny said sure. I wasn’t too interested in taking anything out of there. I had seen the guy, Bruce, two days before he’d died. He came out the door on a woman’s arm, like he was very weak, and his skin was yellow. He didn’t even look at me. I mean yellow, too, like I’ve never seen on a human being. I didn’t know much back then, but I knew I was looking at a dead man.