When you get to my age, I find that there are periods of my past I can look back to and remember things about that time; people, situations, emotions and locales. But the last bit, the locations; that always seems to have a strange pull on me, especially with the technology at hand today, to "revisit" the past in a sort of ad hoc time machine fashion. Maybe it has to do with my continuous recurring "location" dreams. I'm fascinated by places.
I find myself constantly thinking back to a time in my past, remembering a certain place, sometimes visited ever so briefly, and wondering what it looks like today. Most times I don't have a clue as to the obvious hints that could help me in my search like addresses or even the town in some instances; I just have to go by memory alone -- and we know how great that is.
The other night I was watching an interior design video on YouTube and it featured an apartment owner living in a small, but smartly-laid out apartment in the Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan. When the camera briefly showed a shot of the view out of his windows, I saw an elevated subway station and it looked familiar...
Back in 1994, I had dated this guy I met online (yes, I was an early adopter of online hookups -- I have several posts detailing my early 90s Wild West days of The Internet pre-Grindr escapades) and though he lived all the way in New York, and I in Rhode Island, we visited each other a few times that summer in a whirlwind romance. Well, more like a whirlwind series of bump-and-grind sessions. Whatev...
Though I'd been to his apartment at least two times back then, after I'd broken up with him, I never had a reason to even go anywhere in the vicinity of his hood, heck, not even north of Central Park in any of my subsequent visits to the Big Apple so I'd forgotten the location of his place even as far back as the late 90s.
When the age of Google Maps and especially Street View became a thing in our times, I took a minute every now and then and tried to "hunt down" where his apartment building might be. Despite repeated tries, I just couldn't place it. Nothing looked "quite right."
But after seeing the video I watched the other night, I figured I'd give it another shot. And somehow, when I got alongside a particular building in Street View, it seemed to just "click." "I think this might be it." I murmured. I'd seen this building before when scoping out the area, but you know how Street View updates images? I think this update was a bit clearer, or the angle was just a bit better, or something...
I then Googled the name of the apartment building, which I could see from the signage on the entrance in the Street View image, and then pulled up a Realtor.com listing for an apartment within.
This is it. Maybe not this very apartment, but the details are exactly as I remember from Almir's place.
Oh yeah, did I even mention his name until just then? No? You see, it's the locations that are important to me, the people and other things... they're, well, less important.
All I care is I found my White Whale. Thar she blows!