Anyway, I got a call off my sign from Ronald. He wanted to buy it. "What does 'investors only' mean?" He asked and I explained that there is a long-term tenant in the home and they come with the property. Therefore, we are only selling it to someone looking to be a landlord.
"Oh," and he sounded dejected.
Normally I'd just hang up there, but something in the back of my head told me to hang on a moment. And I'm glad I did.
Ronald went on to tell me this was his childhood home. He grew up there, his grandparents bought the home in the early 1960s. They raised their children there and then he lived there with his grandparents as well. He had happy memories of the place. He started telling me about the neighborhood and some of the neighbors and that's when I jumped in.
"You know, this is my old neighborhood too." I said. "I went to school with (next door neighbor) Bob's daughter, Lisa."
Ronald is 35 and I am pretty sure I know who his father is (a couple of years older than me). I know his mother was in the class right behind mine. It was fun to walk through memory lane with this perfect stranger and for a moment I was seven and playing on the swings with a seven year old red-headed Jane.
"Did you go to Sahuaro School?" Ronald asked.
"I did," I answered.
"You know who the best teacher there was, right?"
"Mrs. Meadows," we said in unison, which brought up a lot more reminiscing for the two of us. He reminded me about the snakes in Mrs. Meadows' classroom (she always had several, along with tarantulas, scorpions, lizards and other critters she thought we should learn about) and I told him how she now puts snake shot in her .38 because the shotgun is just too much for her.
Later that night, I sent Mrs. Meadows a text, telling her I ran into one of her former students from about 25 years ago. "Oh... I remember Little Ronnie!" she replied. And I'm guessing then she took a walk down memory lane herself.
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