A Cast of Characters

The first place that we lived in when my wife and I were first married was a apartment in Linden N.J. It was a great place with two large bedrooms and a large dinning and living room. The rent was reasonable for what you got. One of best things about this apartment complex was the cast of characters that lived there. The land lady name was Freida Braun and her boy friends name was Fritz. She was a nice lady who really took care of her property and was on top of everything that was happening in the apt. I use to call her Eva Braun, who was Hitlers girl friend, and my wife use to say that one day I was going to call her Eva to her face. It never happened. There was a nice couple who lived above us who, it sounded to us, that they were bowling in their living room. But the person that I use to love to talk too the most was Artie, who was Freida's brother who was a tad off. Artie would get around town on a old Schwinn bike with a very large basket on the front. Artie was always in a hurry to get somewhere. But the best was when you stopped and talked to him. He would talk a mile a minute and you could only understand ever other word. But you know what, I hung in there and listen to everything he had to say. But the real charm of Artie was that, in winter, he would have this single drop of what I will describe as nasal liquid hanging from the end of his nose. And while Artie was espousing some long diatribe about I don't know what, I could only concentrate on that single drop on the end of his nose.