I started writing these remembrances after my youngest encouraged me to do so. Then my oldest took it a step further by gifting me with a subscription to StoryWorth for Mother’s Day. It is evolving into a series of remembrances of my childhood that I hope describes 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. 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.
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.
Important to me is that for these stories of bygone days serve to provide my children and grandchildren with an understanding of those who came before them. Life was not only a lot different, it was a whole lot more difficult back then – – – especially for those who came before me: my parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles.
It would be nice for those living and succeeding today to understand those who, many years ago, worked long hours in difficult jobs and in many cases experiencing unfair discrimination… but preserving so that the generations to come could have a better life.
And don’t kid yourself: that is exactly what most of our ancestors worked for: they worked so we could have a better life than they did.
As a friend once said of his ancestors, “We stand on their shoulders.’
Growing up in Chicago in the '50's 