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And I'll tell you why.....
Me and my family used to live in a two family apartment house (in Brooklyn, NY). Our bastard of a landlord lived in the first floor apartment, and rented out the second floor apartment to us. We moved in the month of February from our old slum of a place where we froze to death every winter because the landlord gave us little or no heat.
The first time I stepped inside it, on the very day we moved in, it was nice and WARM. However, that winter would be the only one where we would enjoy a warm winter. The Landlord found out that he could rent out the place for alot more money than he rented it out to us. So, 9 months later he served us with an eviction notice (which my mother successfully fought off). And when that didnt work, he then resorted to turning off the heat in order to try to make us move. And when he did turn the heat on, he gave us as little heat as possible.
He gave us such little heat, that when he did turn the heat on, that literally became a cause for celebration. I'd throw up my hands and exclaim "Hallelujah! He's giving us heat!" That joy would be short lived, for he would only turn it on for about 15 minutes to about an hour and a half, before he would turn it off again. He turned the heat on for us like that only about two or three times a day. So it would be hours before he would have it turned on again. Problem was that our apartment was not well insulated. The windows, the window jambs were all wood. And over time, they were rotting away at the edges. As a result, you could put your hand underneath the closed window, and feel a breeze coming in. You didnt have to feel it. You could see the heavy metal venetian blinds moving to and fro as the wind outside blew. Of course, in his apartment downstairs, he replaced the old wooden windows with brand new metal ones. But he would not do the same for our apartment. We got no improvements in our apartment, no matter what. I became so accustomed to living in such freezing conditions, that it never failed to take me by surprise that no matter what day of the week in the wintertime I went to visit my friends in their homes and apartments, it was always warm where they lived. I used to wonder if they ever had to live with the cold indoors as often as I did. They didnt.
Oh, our delightful landlord used to keep his own apartment nice and warm. How did I know? Our front doors were side by side. And once you stepped inside my front door, there was a flight of stairs that you had to walk up in order to get inside the rest of the apartment. At the bottom of those stairs was a radiator. That one radiator, was connected to the heating system of HIS apartment. So, whenever he turned on the heat in his apartment, that radiator would also be giving off heat. That little radiator was on 98 percent of the time the rest of our radiators were off. And that part of our apartment, the bottom of the stairs, right inside our front door, was the the most consistantly warmest part of our place. Many is the time I'd be sitting down there with a book, trying to keep warm. Other times, when I didnt want to sit at the bottom of the stairs, I took the more dangerous route (Didnt know at the time that this was dangerous) of turning on the oven to full blast, opening the oven door, and letting that heat part of the apartment up.
One time, I was coming home from a friends house, and just as I got to my place, (remember: he lived on the first floor apartment), I turned my head, and saw my landlord in his living room (his curtains were completely up) adjusting the thermostat on the wall. He had his shirtsleeves rolled up as if he were in the tropics. I thought to myself "Yeah, but I'll bet my apartment is still like a damn freezer." Sure enough, I came inside my front door, that little radiator at the bottom of the stairs was on, I climbed the stairs, and the whole apartment was freezing. No heat. In fact, the heat in my place wouldnt be turned on untill early the next morning around 5-6am. That night, just like many other nights before and after it, I would sleep fully clothed (including wearing long johns) just to keep warm while I slept.
Oh, we reported them to the housing authorities, minutes after the housing authorities left after meeting with them, the landlords wife angrilly rang our front doorbell over and over again. Even the housing authorities werent of much help. The landlord still refused us heat, as often as he most possibly could. For example, the local housing law required that the landlord turns the heat on sometime in october. No matter how cold it got, he waited untill the very last week of october to turn it on for the very first time. And the law also required that he cannot turn off the heat for good untill April. After the very first week of april, no matter how cold it still was and would remain for that month, he kept the heat off for good. Oh, that went for only our apartment. You can be damn sure, he left on the heat in his apartment.
We lived there for almost 15 years. During the summertime, we had no air conditioning. And the place was like an oven except on nice cool days, but it was a damn sight better than trying to keep from freezing.
Many is the time I'd be sitting in my apartment in the late summer or fall, dreading the upcoming winter months. And sitting in my freezing apartment during the wintertime, looking forward to the end of winter and the beginning of spring. Not ONCE while living in that apartment during the spring/summer/fall did I ever look forward to the upcoming winter months and not ONCE during the winter months did I ever dread the upcoming warmer temps that was sure to come in the spring.
We eventually moved into a house of our own where we control the indoor temps to our hearts content. We do not have air conditioning for the summertime, but we have never froze indoors since then.
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