In the old-town building where the Herzog family rented two small rooms on the second floor, a separate apartment became available. They let go of the two small rooms, which they had used as bedrooms for the parents and for Walter, whose room was also used as a bathroom with a zinc bathtub. The family moved into the vacant apartment next door, which had a living room and two bedrooms, a real bathtub alongside running cold and hot water, heated by the bakery oven below.
Soon after the move, Frau Herzog decided to sleep on the new couch in the living room. Her explanation was that she could not tolerate her husband’s loud snoring anymore. After trying the second bedroom for a while, Walter decided to use his mother’s empty bed next to Friedrich. The separate room that he could use had a window high up in the wall and hence had no view and very little daylight. As it developed, the son sleeping with the father in the marital beds became a constant element of the Herzogs’ family life.
Different people moved into the space next door. Although the city owned the building, it both subsidized the rent and leased it to welfare recipients or city workers. The first new renter who appeared one day was a woman with an extremely deformed body and slurred speech. Walter was shocked and afraid the first time he saw her, and that never changed until she moved out. The woman was not friendly, but rather grumpy and antagonistic. Even to the young Walter, she never uttered a kind word. Because of her contorted mouth and facial areas, it was very difficult to understand what she said. On top of her scaring him whenever Walter met her in the hallway, the Herzogs had to share the toilet with her. Walter dreaded the times when either he opened the toilet door and the woman was sitting on it or she had left a piece of feces behind on the wooden toilet seat.
After the woman moved out, a middle-aged man and woman came to be the new neighbors. He labored in the garbage-disposal department, and his girlfriend worked various jobs. Both were blessed with family members from previous relationships who visited them frequently. There was a lot of coming and going next door, and the couple owned a television.
Occasionally Walter had been able to watch TV at a friend’s home, but the friend’s father became too erratic and dangerous; there were many tears and fights in that family, and his friend asked him to stay away. One night Walter collected all the courage he could and knocked on the door of the new neighbors. When a man opened, Walter asked, “Would it be OK if I watch some television with you?”
“Yes, of course, come in,” said the man, who had a large hooknose and thick eyeglasses.
Walter had found his new locale to watch shows such as the American TV series 77 Sunset Strip and Lassie. Sometimes, five to seven people were in the small room, all of them smoking cheap, sweet-smelling cigarettes. When that occurred, without an open window, it was almost impossible to see the TV set because of the smoke. The neighbors did not mind that Walter smoked as well.