329 Elm, Lawrence, Kansas

329 Elm - Lawrence, Kansas

I lived in this house from 1975 to 1980. Darrell Katz lived there before me, and when he left to go to Berklee, I moved in. Rent was $75 per month. It's what some call a shotgun house: Two rooms on one side with a bedroom and a kitchen on the other. Heat was provided by a standing unit in the main back room. The bathroom was in the basement.

I was not a good tenant; the landlord would call me from time to time, saying, "Mister Curry, you got to cut the weeds!" I generally had at least one non-running car in the driveway off the alley.

For a time, Bob Case's girlfriend, Michele Pierman, who hailed from Kalamazoo, lived there. This worked out because I was on the road most of the time with the Spears band. Unfortunately, she cleaned the place up really well and put a lot of my stuff in the basement. Including photographs. Water damage got the photos, which is why so many of the images on this site are damaged. I was pretty steamed about that, but what can you do?

Jim Bee, at a later point in time, paid me a little rent so he could have his "North Lawrence office" there.

The house is still there, now painted a shade of purple.

Here's a photo of my little sister Rachel, my mother, and me in front of 329 Elm, August of 1975. Mom wasn't happy about the way I was living.