The Years In Atlanta

I never lived in Atlanta!

This is probably part of the 'Years In' series I was writing in 1979-1980
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The Years in Atlanta How We Escaped From Atlanta And Got My Parent's House

   Oh, sweet salad days. These were the really bad times. I was a waiter at "Joe's", and Kevin was a waiter at "Chez Henri". Our gross, collective income was not more than $6,000 a year, at a time when the average income in Atlanta was nearly $18,000.
  We moved to Atlanta after hearing in Washington that there were jobs there. There were some nice acting positions, all of which Kevin and I auditioned for and - were rejected. Having very little money and a 1968 Plymouth Duster (which was falling apart) we didn't leave Atlanta for two years. It was simply impossible to get the money up to go anywhere.
  Well, by the summer of 1998, we had managed to save close to $1,000, but that wasn't enough to get anywhere. Until! Yes, until July 19, 1998.
  At 8:30 that night, Kevin and I both managed to get off early and go to a movie with money we scrounged. I don't remember what movie it was. Anyway, we left the theatre at about 10:00 and started walking home. We noticed, during our 28-block walk, an alarmingly large number of fire trucks and ambulances, and decided to see where they were going
  Well, you guessed it - by the time we got there, our apartment building had burned flat to the ground. All we had now was the car and about eight dollars. So we did the only logical thing -- we left Atlanta and started heading north. We got about 200 miles before we ran out of gas, then wired to Kevin's friends in New York for some money, sold the car ($100) and flew to Washington. With the remaining money, we took a taxi to my parent's house in Hillsboro.
   No answer at the door, although ere were numerous cars. The door was open, the porch light on. We went in to find 6 years of mail in the font hall. Postmarks dating back to 1992!!
   Mrs. James, the postmistress, said that when my parents stopped picking up the mail, she just dumped it inside the front door. Noone had heard from my parents for six years!!!
   As it ended up in 1999 I had them declared legally dead and got over $200,000 worth of insurance. 3 days later a letter came that said "Mama & Daddy" were happy I'd take advantage of the situate. I never heard from them again. I still, to this day, have no idea what happened to them.

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As with almost all the entries on this blog, this is unedited, typed verbatim as originally written.