Richbrau, Continued-- and a bit of reality.

So, regarding my prior entry about hardware and Richbrau Brewery in Richmond: it turns out Richbrau is producing beer again, in another, trendier part of Richmond. I was able to find a picture of the old brewery, where I lived for less than a year in 1988, but it's all fixed up now. In fact, it claims to house 37 apartments! When I lived there we had no plumbing except a toilet at the other end of the building, reachable by going through several heavy fire doors. We built our own floor out of pallets and found shelving wood, and used some kind of electric burner to cook. I took showers by standing under a cold hose over the same drain we used to wash the dishes. One day we realized this was just a hole in the floor, that emptied into the basement level--there was no pipe there! There were random holes in the concrete floors, and a fair bit of asbestos. We paid $75/month each for $1500 square feet.

I sound like one of those Monty Python skits: "we used to have to crawl home on broken glass, and lick the road clean, and we didn't complain!"

Sure, those were the good old days, but I must admit I like having indoor plumbing and a real stove (I'm not even worthy of the six-burner Viking stove I currently have!) Maybe when the Governor's plan for state workers goes into effect, I'll have to get used to no plumbing again. This afternoon I got an email about how all California state employees may have their salaries cut to $6.55 per hour, until the state budget is passed. Tenured or not, in the end I'm a "state worker".

The "old" Richbrau Brewery in Jackson Ward, Richmond, Virginia.