I live in a parking lot. My front yard is gravel and asphalt with intermittent stains of eternally black oil, impervious to any cleaning agent, natural or otherwise. Our house is built on the land right next to the train tracks. And of course there's the constant image of old cars lined up in rows, no junk, just old ones. It's embarrassing to live in these conditions, but I wouldn't change the situation at all. My family moved into the parking lot when I was in seventh grade. My father had only been in the used car business for about five years. As an adult, my father had changed jobs more often than most middle-class parents are accustomed to. Before accepting the title of car salesman, he had a well-paying position in the State Department in which he trained unemployed people so they could find work. However, he says that by the end his job had become more about paperwork than people. You see, my father is a businessman, or at least prides himself on being one. People are his game. He saw the automotive business as the perfect profession to use his gifts that were so shamefully wasted in his old job. During those early years as a car salesman, however, I almost never saw my father. I would get up and leave for school before he woke up, and I would be asleep or at least in bed before he could drag his exhausted, overworked body out the front door and collapse into bed. Often he was unable to eat dinner until he had slept for a few hours. I still remember many times seeing him sitting on the couch at 2 a.m. in his pajamas, eating cottage cheese and peaches and watching Headline News. Needless to say, my father was tired of living such an existence. Sure, he was providing for his family, but I'm sure he was feeling terrible about the lack of time with his kids. This case is of course what led my father to suggest that we move into the building next door to his field office. This “house” was really just another office building with a kitchen. In addition, this parking lot was built in the same location as all the other dealerships in our community: downtown...