Wknd Asgn #79: Sweet Home Chicago

Well, finally catching up a bit. Here is my entry John for "Sweet Home Chicago."

My parents grew up in Chicago & my grandparents stayed until their health began to fail. I have great found memories of staying with my grandma & grandpa before I entered school. Long weekends since my mon had a 3 yr old, 1 yr old & a brand new baby. I'm not sure how she did it. My grandma had a beauty shop in her basement. I would be awakened by all the ladies laughing downstairs. I'd wake up & go down their in my sleeper jammies & all of them would yell my name happy to see me. How great it is for a little girl to live with a beauty shop inside their home! HA! I certainly had fun playing. I was always happy with my grandma!

This picture (below) was actually in my folks first house...Pink kitchen wow! Even the table was this acrylic oval table with pink & white stones in it. Lets see this would be the 60s & 70s. Look at the counter...glass soda bottles & paper milk cartons...remember them? Grandma would take me on the buses downtown & we'd go shopping! We had like 3 bus transfers but it was fun. I still remember one stop had a candy store she'd stop in. Chocolate stars & raisins! :-) We'd have spaghetti lunch & Woolworths had the old cylinder paper cups you put in the metal bases for drink. I remember walking in there at Christmas time & they'd have their display table with the newest & latest item. The smoking log cabin I fondly remember. And man were the window displays for Christmas wonderful back then. Nothing like that today! No martians! Santa's workshop etc. And the big Christmas Tree in the Walnut Room of Marshall Field, which BTW is supposedly going to be changed to Macy's! They just better not take those Frango Mints away! :-) I haven't ever ice skated on State Street yet and not sure if I will be able to with this foot...maybe in a few years. Went a few years ago with a friend the day after Thanksgiving and we had a blast just like we were kids. We saw the tree being lit, took pictures with quite a few Santa's, checked out the windows, watched the kids have sooo much fun! We just absorbed it all into our spirits.

My grandmother had the most beautiful roses growing against the fence in her backyard! And grandpa had HUGE Tomato plants along side the garage...at least by the end of the summer. We use to kid he'd feed kids or bad neighbors to the plants. We had so much fun in the kiddie pools back then.
 
Fast forwarding many years later I ended up going to Roosevelt University for Graduate School. It is right by Buckingham Fountain. It was so lovely going to school down there, except for studying! HA! Lesson #1 you don't get much studying done sitting on the edge of the lake watching the boats go by. Yes, relaxing but way too distracting! :-) Managed to get a bit of shopping in also! HA! Well, it was sooo close! :-)

Last summer I headed down to Art Institute with my sister & my little niece to see the "Seurat and the Making of the La Grande Jatte". I had gone to the Rembrandt exhibit in the spring & loved it. The Seurat was just as breath taking & interesting on the audio tour! My niece ran up to a Picasso & pointed at it. My sister told her it was Picasso & she said, "No, it is PABLO Picasso." We just both laughed. Must have learned it in school! On our way back to the car we happened to walk by the Crown Fountain on Michigan Avenue. Well you can't go by it without stopping & taking in all the positive energy. We let he play of course. This place has to have the most positive energy on the planet. Kids, parents, grandparents (even aunts!) laughing & having soooo much fun. I think we stayed about an hour & a half! She was wet in the car but we found her some blankets & she was fine.
 
Extra Credit: Deep Dish Pizza
   
My favorite pizza in Chicago is from Chicago Pizza & Oven Grinder. It is an awesome place on where the St. Valentine's Day Massacre happened across the street.  The door guy remembers everyone in order without writing down names. It is usually very crowded. Go to the link & look at the menu...they have pictures of the other food items! Pizza is like sauce in a bowl with say a huge meatball & then dough on top that cooks & then they turn it over & then it is like a bowl. They have AWESOME Meditteraean bread too!!! Man just looking at the menu now is making me want to go! Last time I was there was several years ago before the Faith Hill & Tim McGraw concert! I think I will plan a trip soon! :-)

Ok,  now I want to head to Chicago! :-)