Summer Solstice
The official start of the summer season is just days away, and although the weather
in Chicago has been unseasonably cool, it will eventually be hot and unbearably humid. I haven't spent a summer here in decades, and since Mitch grew up in the south, a summer here may seem mild compared to the July and August days of his childhood.
When I was a youngster, my family lived in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, and I
have very fond memories of summer evenings spent outside, sitting on the porch steps, trying to stay cool (we had no air conditioning) and waiting for the ice cream truck to come down the street with push-ups and popsicles.
My grandmother kept a lawn chair in the front hallway that she pulled out on to the
porch night after night, where she'd sit and wave at the neighbors to come over for a chat. My mother would sit on the steps keeping an eye on my sister and me, making sure we didn't stray to far, or get into too much trouble.
All of the kids on our block were doing the same thing we were, and we'd run from one
set of stairs to another, as we played games of some sort that I can't recall. I just remember how much fun we had. Then as the street lights came on and the sun finally set, my grandmother would fold up the lawn chair, my mother would tell us it was time to come in, and we'd go up into our apartment with box fans in every window, trying to pull in the cooling night air. And then, the next evening, we'd be back out on that porch, my grandmother would get out that chair, and off we'd go having the time of our lives, on another hot summer night.
Posted by designslinger at 6/17/2009 2:29 AM 
Categories: Architecture, Ephemera
Tags: Chicago porches summer Humboldt Park
Categories: Architecture, Ephemera
Tags: Chicago porches summer Humboldt Park
Sounds so much better than our backyard culture out here in the Los Angeles suburbs. Thanks for sharing.
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That's exactly how I grew up in "Los Angeles." I think it has more to do with "when" you grew up.
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