re: how crappy was your first apartment?

Never lived in a bad apartment, they've just been rough areas.

One was on Gardere when that neighborhood set a record for homicides. I got spooked after a couple of particularly bad weeks once, and a girl I brought over almost started crying when she laid in my bed and found my .357 magnum behind the pillow.

One was right next door to a section 8 complex. There was a hodge-podge wood and barbed-wire fence between the structures, and half of their windows were boarded up.