The Motivation for Writing

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I started this blog after my youngest encouraged me to do so. It is evolving into a series of remembrances of my childhood that I hope describe life in the mid-20th century Chicago.  Little did I realize when I began this journey how old it would make me feel.  For although these memories are, and have, been apart of my psyche for more than XX years, until I started to record them they were just that – memories.  Once written, though, they come to life and serve to remind me how drastically different the world was for us back then.

Electronic devices are now an intregel part of our lives, world travel is commonplace, instant communication expected.  In the quick pace of today, we forget the simplicity of yesterday.  At least I did.

Since retiring I’ve been fortunate to have traveled to faraway places.  By contrast, my life back then didn’t go much further than the boundaries of my Catholic parish. As I grew a little older it encompassed some, but not all, of the south side.  The north side of Chicago was still another planet even in my teens.  When I started high school at Mother McAuley, which was in the suburbs (maybe eight – ten miles from home) I felt as if I was in another state.

And while today I can get news instantly on my iPhone from anywhere I happen to be, back then our news came in the twice-a-day delivery of the newspapers or on the radio. Televisions in homes was a novelty and even if you had one, all broadcasting stopped after the 10pm news.  My grandpa Kelly died in 1954, when I was nine years old, and we still didn’t have one.  We watched the 7 inch tv in his apartment.  All the kids on the block thought how lucky my brother Jackie and I were to be able to watch the Long Ranger on his TV every Saturday at noon.

Whether, as some argue, it was better back then, I will leave to each person’s own judgement.  What I can say it that the world as I knew it was  a whole lot different in the mid-1950’s and a world I wish I could visit once again.  Would I want to stay there?  I don’t know.  I don’t think so. But I sure would like to have the powers to travel back in time to experience it one last time.

I also would like this blog serve to share with my children and grandchildren an understanding of those who came before them.  Life was not only a lot different, it was a lot more difficult back then – – – especially for those who came before me: my parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles.

I consider myself so fortunate.  Whatever success I have had is due, in large part, to those who worked so hard before me so that my life might be better than their’s.  My father stood on street corners in all sorts of weather – – , rain, cold, snow, blizzards, or hot sun – – timing buses for the CTA so that I and my siblings could go to good schools, get into college and become professionals.  Our lives are – at least in material ways – so much better than my mom and dad had.

So this blog is dedicated to my grandparents, Hannah and Patrick Kelly, Mary Ann and William Murphy and my parents Eileen and Art Murphy. And all others who worked so hard so that I have the luxury of traveling the world, enjoying my retirement, playing with electronic devices and sitting in air-conditioned comfort as I take time to scribble these few thoughts.