Took a trip out to the south Dallas neighborhood of Oak Cliff today after I read an article mentioning that the old apartment where Lee Harvey Oswald once lived was going to be demolished. I thought I’d head out there and have a quick look-see before the place was razed. Looks like the city had already put up a chainlink fence around the property by the time I got there. It’s an old neighborhood. Reminds me of Berkeley or Oakland, California. Down the street is an area comprised of boutique shops, hole-in-the-wall bistros, and mini-art galleries. Seems geared toward a hip crowd, targeted at the guys and gals who don’t vote Republican or eat at chain restaurants or drink watered-down American beer. Artists more than capitalists, but still trying to make a sale. And damn, it was hot today. Must have been about 102F, 105F degrees. I had parked off Jefferson and Zang, just a few blocks away and was drenched in sweat after having walked the short distance.
600 Elsbeth Street, Dallas, Texas. This address is mentioned in the Warren Commission’s report investigating John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Lee Harvey Oswald lived here a short time. Strangely, it was never designated as a state or national historical site. Or maybe not so strangely. Who likes to remember the bad things? Is Charles Manson’s childhood home an historic landmark? Or what about the home of the guy who shot Ronald Reagan? Except for Adolph Hitler, we allow villains to wash away in the dim fog of time. Which might also explain why we “buried” Osama bin Laden at sea. Food for the bottom-feeders now. Fuck ‘em.
Lee Harvey Oswald’s old apartment looks like any old run-down apartment building built during the same era. Roominghouse type deals where lonely men lived in tiny lonely rooms, down and out and trying to survive. It’s the kind of place where writers like Bukowski might have lived, you imagine, banging whores and pounding on that typewriter. A place to call home for random drunkards, drug addicts, warehouse workers, government clerks. Or presidential assassins.
I snapped a few pics then left. It was too hot.
