Windy City Regression

We’re still in Chicago. We’re having a great time but we've been here so long I’ve practically forgotten where I live the rest of the year. Los Angeles? Where’s that? For all I know, California has snapped off and fallen into the Pacific. Being around my family, it takes all my energy to avoid regressing into infancy. I think I reached the nadir of regression after about 8 days. Who is that woman in my bedroom, I thought with a start on Day 6? Hey, that 13-year-old girl looks familiar but I can’t quite place her. Oh, wait—it’s my wife and daughter! Last weekend I woke up and suddenly felt my present-day self rushing back into my body. As we approach our departure, I find that I’m flickering like a Midwestern firefly between 2008 and the early 1970s.

I love Chicago. Let’s face it, as a thriving, culturally rich metropolitan center, it leaves Los Angeles in the dust. Granted, I don’t want to hear my adopted city trashed by any snooty Chicagoans, but between you and me, Chicago rules in terms of architecture, food, theatre, public parks, museums, and general cohesiveness and brand loyalty. Sure, the weather sucks six months out of the year, but most people here take that in stride and are thus more grateful for the months when you can actually walk outside without risking frostbite or heat exhaustion.

If I actually lived here I would pace myself better. As it is, with all the people I need to see, I am averaging about six meals a day. Is it an homage to my beloved home town that I am morphing into the body shape of the first Mayor Daley? I think I’ve had my quota of Chicago hot dogs, deep dish pizza, Italian beef, and other local delicacies for the next millennium. As soon as I get back to L.A. tomorrow night I will begin my annual post-Chicago cleanse.

Yesterday we went to one of my favorite spots from childhood, the Museum of Science and Industry, housed in a magnificent building that was built for the 1893 Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago. I’m sure it was growing up here that made me into such a history lover. Everywhere you look there are signs of Chicago’s fascinating past. Today there is a real appreciation and respect for the history of the city although many of my favorite buildings were torn down in the miserable 1970s and 80s.

There's so much more I could say about this wonderful town and the intricacies of my family dynamic but it’s 10 am and time for another meal. Is there a world going on out there? I need to find a newspaper since I have no idea what’s going on. Wait, I think some guy named Spitz just won big at the Olympics. And I know there’s a big election coming up in a few months. I, for one, am putting all my money on McGovern.

Comments

[churlita]

Oh, how I have such mixed feelings about my home town. There are so many things to love and just as many things to be disturbed by in that city.

For sure, next Summer I'm taking the girls there for a few days to see a Cubs game and go to Navy Pier and some of our favorite museums. I might do the nostalgia part of it too and check out my grandma's funeral home and Chicago Ridge cemetery where my grandparents are buried and my mom's ashes are sprinkled. Wow. Maybe it is the 70's again. I better go find my denim wrap around skirt and shiny disco shirt to match.

[RD]

I think Chicago is the greatest city in the country. Really I do. Great post.

[david]

And if you lived here you would be in a cage death match with your sister over a grocery list some distant relative penned in 1964 on the back of some Barbie stationery.

And you would eat 6 meals a day, 6 days a week.

And you would not go outside from December through February.

And you would see a lot of movies during that time.

[david]

Cubs:

Feh.

[joy]

I love the museum of science and industry!!! that was my second home growing up!

[Emily Barton]

Oh, I love Chicago, too (says the New-Yorker-at-heart)! My fifth-grade teacher in N.C. was from Chicago, and from the moment she began to talk about it, I was longing to go. Didn't make it until I was 30, but it completely lived up to all my expectations -- and still does every time I visit. Seems a lot of my favorite people are from/have lived there. (And just between you and me, I can tell you're really from Chicago and not from L.A. -- but don't tell any of those famous L.A.-ers with whom you spend time that I said so).

[Michael Baim (NTHS 1966)]

Why is it so many of us love Chicago but still left it.
I've told my kids the only nice months I remember in Chicago were May and September. The rest were either hot and humid or really cold and damp - the sky - always cloudy.
I moved to Colorado for college and lived in Arizona and California for over 18 years before moving back to Colorado.
I'd tell my family "Chicago's a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there."
And now, my 18 year old daughter has started college in ... the Loop! Columbia! Oh, the irony.
So, we drove there to drop her off and couldn't believe how nice and clean downtown is. And lots of other parts of city are too.
Of course Chicago now goes on forever. Everywhere north and northwest that used to be nowhere is now full of houses. Who can remember all these places? I'd get lost trying to find my way home.
But, the city has become so cool!
By the way, about the food...the portions they serve in Chicago are bigger. No, really, go to the Cheesecake factory in Denver and you get a seared tuna salad that is adequate. But, at the one in Old Orchard it's enough for two - well, okay - one and a half.
No wonder it's the city of big shoulders and other areas too.

[Terrence Madden]

As a transplant to Chicago 20 years ago, the city continues to amaze me.

Chicago is a world-class city and we have visitors from all over the globe to prove it. Weekly lunch-hour walks through Millennium Park reveal the many languages and cultures of the tourists as they snap their photos in the reflection of Cloud Gate (the bean). From the architecture to the museums to our magnificent lake shore, Chicago has it all.

I love the seasons, especially Fall. I moved here in October 1988, and I remember sitting on Loyola Beach in Rogers Park on Halloween and going for a swim. I said, "this is unbelievable." It was 75, sunny and the water was still warm enough. I cherish the memory, and the season.

Winter can be a bit long. It takes fortitude to walk through an arctic blast in the Loop in February. It takes endurance to see the calendar read April, while you pull on your boots and hat and head to the El. It takes character, but that's what makes Chicagoans so great. If it was pleasant weather all year, everyone would live here. I like to think Chicago winters help keep out the riff-raff.

Come for a visit if you've never been. Check out something new if you've been here your whole life. Chicago, my kind of town.