Where did all these new toll roads come from? While driving west out of the Chicago O’Hare airport I missed an exit and got turned around into rush hour traffic so got off at the first opportunity.
Found a familiar main road, not expressway, and soon a cross street name caught my attention. My Aunt Patti lived on this street in LaGrange, and still does. I totally surprised her. It had been about 35 years since we’d seen each other.
As a child, my family stayed here while waiting to move into a new house. In fact, Mom actually tied me to a cherry tree that’s no longer there at this neighboring house where another relative lived and now my cousin lives there. Mom got pissed at all my wandering off.
I lived in Downers Grove during most of my school years. I so remember crawling out the bedroom window (behind the tree), across the shaky just-for-looks balcony and over the garage roof to shimmy down a drain pipe. Trees given to Mom for holidays as saplings now tower over the roof. The neighborhood looks lush and settled instead of the sparse one tiny tree in front of every house.
Downers Grove South High School really grew, I suppose to match the expanded neighborhood. Turned down the street we used to drag race on and now too many stop signs. Plus the Ford Fiesta rental couldn’t beat a snail.
About the only things I recognized were street names as I continued traveling west to the home of my hostess who I thought lived way out in the sticks. But turns out rural is even further west, which I explored the following day.
I, too, liked to wander as a child (still do), but only my brother suffered the indignity of being tied to his crib at nap time. Maybe our mother had just given up by the time I came along ten years later.
The house where I grew up is gone, now an apartment house stands in its place.
Ah, I knew we are kindred wandering spirits.
Two other houses I lived in are gone.
While Dad was still a Ranger and we lived in government housing at the Station we wandered all over the place. Only got in trouble once.
Going back home is always a little disconcerting, a mixture of the old and the new.
Gosh – still escaping and wandering just like you did as a child, Gaelyn. Glad you made it safely to your destination.
Yep, they say you can’t go home again. I have tried visiting old places from my youth but like you I recognize street names but a lot of places are gone. My old high school is no more. It still is an elementary school though. It does some like a wonderful trip and seeing old friend and an Aunt you have seen for years make up for the stick built things gone.I was a wanderer too. My mother tells the story of when I was two the neighbor called to report a very determined looking little girl marching down the road—heading for somewhere. LOL MB
I love the image of the determined little girl heading somewhere.
It was a great visit to a rather pretty, if too crowded, area filled with old friends.
Somehow I just knew your wandering spirit started as a child…. Me too! I tried to hike the hills that I ‘owned’ as a child to no avail…. barbed wire and no trespassing signs greeted me where wild flowers, picnic rocks and endless vistas were my childhood playground. It lives on only in my memories!
So many things change, going back in history is not always quite what you expect! Enjoy your day. Diane
I love those little “happenstance” miracles like running into your Aunt’s street and surprising her. That alone would have made my trip. I was a wanderer too. All the open spaces in my childhood are also gone and the creeks paved over. So sad I haven’t been back in years to see if it is even worse. I feel so sorry for children growing up with no where they may wander.
And you are still wandering too.
Seeing my Aunt was a very special treat.
I love seeing old places where I’ve lived. I think we all need it.
It’s funny that you got in trouble for wandering off when you were a toddler! A Geo-Gypsy from the start.
Born to roam, that’s me.
Oh toll booths!!!! That’s one reason we DID NOT go to Chicago this summer. I don’t know how many times I take the wrong exit and have to pay twice the amount needed to get where we need to be…..and Chicago drivers are crazy.
I am moved by the power of a tree. As children, they were saplings planted by our parents/grandparents. As adults, we return and see them massive and strong. And it is as if you were a child again reliving that moment when your loved one planted that tree there in the first place. I had an experience like that this summer. The trees were large and massive…..just where Grandpa had put them as they were only twigs…..and they became very special to me.
Being tied to the Cherry tree:) I remember a certain Chestnut tree that had two little brothers tied to it. They were also gagged to prevent them from screaming as their older siblings used them as target practice with the chestnuts from the tree. But alas, they are grown and alive today and I would not dare to attempt that fate again:) Growing up in a family of 6 is pretty dangerous business:) I’m enjoying your return. It must have been something to see that aunt. Look forward to more of your journey back.
I wonder if that’s why more roads are built to charge more tolls. Cost me $3.60 to get into the city.
The best part about my old neighborhood is that there are lots of trees, bushes and flowers now.
I knew better than to scream while tied to that tree, even when my cousins and neighborhood kids teased me. Guess I survived to wander again, and again, and again.
Nostalgic post….so many things I relived when I visited my hometown, also much changed. My old house has had two owners since I moved…I guess nowadays that isn’t too many.
A free spirit inherently knows how to untie knots. Keep floating by releasing the ballast.
Amazing memories. I actually followed your path from your window over the balcony to the garage roof as I was reading it.
And of course you couldn’t see the drain pipe in the back. 😉
I was put in a harness and then leashed to the cloths line. I could run up and down the line but didn’t have much lateral freedom. In the society that we have now my mother would have been jailed for child abuse, as would yours and many of those that commented.
It was certainly a different time. But I still have wander lust.