In Pittsburgh, we lived the Shadyside neighborhood – not the part near the fancy shops and fine homes, but on the border of East Liberty (or “sliberty” as the locals called it). We rented the top apartment of a shabby, but affordable, three-story walk-up on a tree-lined street.
Dean is a window person so the head of our bed, in the summer months, was up against the radiator, under the window (windows really – two side-by-side double-hung windows) at the front of the house. Outside the window was an old horse-chestnut tree. We slept with the windows open to the screens all summer long because we had no air-conditioning.
We knew there were bats in the neighborhood because we’d seen plenty flying around at night, catching insects near the mercury-vapor streetlight a few doors up College Avenue.