Greenview

When Chris was about eight years old the family moved again.  Jan found a lovely apartment at the northern edge of Chicago.  This apartment had plenty of windows.  From the central hall, you could see a window letting in sunlight from the front of the building. You could turn around and see another window letting in light from behind the building.

This bright apartment on Greenview was in a much better neighborhood than the one on Agatite.  Chris had the freedom to wander all day.  He did.  There were nice, wide, curvy streets in this area.  Chris most often walked south, where there were several parks.  There was also an attraction closer to home.

A big empty lot sprawled right across the street from his apartment.  The city was built up around it, but some inheritance dispute kept the lot undeveloped for the entire time that Chris lived on Greenview.  The lot was a bit scruffy but several trees grew there.  Kids played ball there sometimes.

In most ways, the move from Agatite to Greenview really improved Chris' life.

There was one big drawback though.  The nicer apartment in the better neighborhood was more expensive.  His parents couldn’t afford to keep him in the National College of Education in Evanston.  Chris loved that school and didn’t love the Chicago public school.  He was “dumped”, as he says, back into the public system.

National had been organized into half-year semesters and he had been skipped ahead 3 of those semesters.  The Chicago school didn’t have half-years.  When he started school that autumn, they could move him forward an additional semester to put him two full years ahead.  Or they could put him back a semester, so he would only be one full year ahead. They moved him back.  It made him feel crummy, as if he’d been held back; had failed.

The exact same thing happened to my mother.  She’d also been promoted a year and a half ahead in one school system, then in another school, without half-years, had been dropped down to only one year ahead.  She felt the same way Chris felt. 

 Nevertheless, both Chris and my mother turned out fine. They were each smart cookies, making their way through life.

The advantages of Chris’ new apartment were fantastic.  He loved exploring far and wide. He loved seeing and discovering things.  Chris and his brothers and his parents enjoyed their time on Greenview Avenue.

* Note:  In the photo above, Chris' family's apartment was a half block north of the red marker.  He lived there in the early 1950s.  This photo shows how the area looks well into the 21st century.  The empty lot Chris liked cross the street is gone.  Dispute settled.  Built up.

More change.  The apartment building on Agatite Street was torn down shortly after the family moved away.  Several blocks worth of nasty living space was razed and a new hospital was built n that space.

This gave Chris a good idea.  "Hey Matt," Chris said.  "You should go into the hospital and tell them you were born there.  They'd say, 'what? 1950?  no.  You couldn't have been.  The hospital wasn't even built yet.' and you could say, 'nevertheless, this is the exact spot where I was born.' "  And it was.  Good true joke.