Living in a converted garage in Tempe, Arizona in the 1980s, while going to ASU


For no apparent reason yesterday the name of the person that I rented my little converted garage from while I was going to ASU, in the 1980s in Tempe, popped into my head. No, I'm not going to mention him by name, but I will say that he was a professor at ASU, and he bought property and held it with the hopes of its increasing in value. Even back then I understood the concept, that it really didn't matter about what was on the land, it was the land that mattered. A renter like me would simply help offset the cost of paying for the property, and the taxes. Presumably he made a profit. No, that's not him there with me in the photo, that was a neighbor who had dogs that I liked. The landlord never visited the property.

The neighborhood was, and is, what I would call "less than fashionable". It was dirt cheap, with no amenities, which is exactly what I wanted. I was a "starving student" and was glad to have found the place, and I made friends with everyone there, even the dogs. That's me on the right there with my neighbor, whose dogs wandered around there. I was a graphic design student and I made the sign. I also had a Polaroid camera, because I took drawing classes, and it was the cheapest way to take a photo back in those days. Handy, too!


I did the math, and it looks like it's been thirty-eight years since I lived there. And checking the neighborhood on Google Street View it doesn't look any better nowadays. But the high-rise apartments are going up on Apache Boulevard, and I'm sure that eventually the property will be worth a lot of money. My best calculations are that my landlord is in his mid-eighties now, and at this rate he will be able to cash in probably by his 90s, certainly no later than in his early 100s.



The little garage where I lived is gone now. It really was a cosy little place - tiny, but well-equipped. It had a separate bedroom area, with a nice little kitchen and a bathroom with shower. I wanted to live alone, and that's an expensive way to live, if you want to live in a nice neighborhood, so I made it happen by living where I did. The alternative, which I never even considered, was having roommates, which most of my ASU friends had. They have stories to tell of partying all night, but my stories were just hanging out with my neighbor's dogs.

Thank you for time-traveling with me!
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