Exactly the Same

We left Alisa & Keith in April that year for the first floor of a two-flat on Dempster Street. Now here is a great example of how it’s hard to go home and fall into an expectation of a lifestyle: I grew up on the far north end of Evanston. As I remembered it, this flat we rented was in an undesireable neighborhood in south Evanston, but things do change! I had to loosen my prejudice and follow my instinct a bit to realize that this part of town had morphed into a very eclectic, gutsy and somewhat creative area. The surroundings seemed to fit what we had grown accustomed to in Riga with interesting people all going about their days in varying, interesting and off-beat ways. There was a rich marrow that filled the crevices there which told me there was space to move in, grow, and ripen. The way Riga was.

Furthermore, any Evanstoninan (or other suburbanite) would tell you that it’s completely undesirable to live on busy Dempster Street, but for us it was a lot like being back on Valdemara iela minus the cabled busses. The traffic and street noise was a bit comforting. Another plus was that we were three blocks from the train and six blocks from the beach. Laundry and some storage were included, Washington School was a quick stroll through the neighborhood, and three bedrooms, a big living room, separate dining room and decent sized kitchen made it all easy to settle in.

After having our belongings in storage for so long (remember I had no sooner unpacked everything in Jaunmarupe only to pack it up again to move overseas), the semi carrying the huge container was unloaded on the street and I had everything arranged and hung in about two days. I was anxious for us to feel like participants in life again instead of a vagabonding family. Arranging a home was the only way I knew how to create some stability and balance.

Fortunately, too, the Dempster Street flat had been freshly painted with warm neutrals which, coupled with the old oak floors and thick woodwork, allowed our strange collection of things to slip in naturally. I was afraid that my version of “home” for our family would never feel like what I had conjured up in Latvia. I was afraid that America would erase it all, but in the end Dempster Street felt exactly the same.