Life with Andrea

When we were in high school, Anne and I swore a solemn oath that we would go someplace together to commemorate our 10th reunion. I knew even then that a reunion would not be something I wanted, but I thought I could do a trip.

My mother said I’d find out - I wouldn’t make it.

Even though it pains me to admit it, my mother was right. We didn’t take the trip. I was on the other side of the country, had just left Massachusetts, and poor, and working on a relationship, and it didn’t work out. But Anne didn’t give up. She tried again for a 20th reunion. Then, she just kept trying. It didn’t matter when. Sometimes I would visit her, sometimes she would visit me, but we never did that that trip together.

Then, about 5 years ago, she suggested we meet in Chicago, a somewhat central place, and have a trip. She could tell by then that we weren’t going to England (that was another part of the original plan). But she thought anything was better than nothing. We almost went, but I think that was the year Bob broke his leg, and it didn’t happen.

So, when she brought it up AGAIN this year, she did it most cleverly. She didn’t say, would you like to try for Chicago again this year? Instead, she said, “Remember that trip we were planning to Chicago? Well, would Memorial Day or Labor Day be better for you - I want to make some plans for the other one.” I know that offering a choice is a way to get people to do things - I know that - but it worked anyway. We went to Chicago.

I was not particularly looking forward to Chicago. It’s a dirty city, with no culture to recommend it, I had never heard anything good about it besides that it once burned down. I also didn’t want to go, because I had taken too many Fridays off this quarter, I had taken too many trips this year, and I wanted to have a holiday with Elizabeth. But I didn’t see how I could say NO one more time. So we went to Chicago.

With a lead-in like that, it would be possible that I wouldn’t have a great time. But….

Chicago is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been in. The architecture is FABULOUS. There are lots of building with carvings and stone and mosaic on the outside. Anne knows something about architecture, and she kept talking about this guy Louis Sullivan. Well, when we started seeing his buildings, I understood why. He designed beautiful things.

Because it was just me and Anne, we didn’t have to worry about whether Bob wanted to listen to music, or Soren hated museums, or anyone was crabby. I didn’t want to listen to music, Anne and I both like museums, and if anyone was crabby, it was us, and we didn’t have to put up with a cheerful person if we didn’t want to.

So we took a tour - which cost and Cait have always prevented us from doing. It was fun. We rode part of the time in a double decker bus on top, and the branches pushed us around. We saw a lot of pretty stuff in the city.

We went to many places - Chicago seems build of neighborhoods. We saw the Chinese neighborhood, walked through the Italian neighborhood (called Little Italy), had lunch in the Greek neighborhood (called Greek Town), and pretty much bypassed Old Town for lack of time. There are many more neighborhoods.

In Chinatown, they had beautiful buildings (of course), lots of shops, and many Asian people, not just haoli tourists. One feature of the town is the Nine Dragon Wall, the only one in the United States. There are 3 in China, and it is a copy of one of them. Each dragon stands for something, and I don’t remember what that is, but you could look it up.

Chicago really did have that fire, in 1871, and much of it burned down. Two special buildings were left - one of which was the water tower. It’s so tall that it didn’t fit well into my picture, but it’s famous enough that there are many other pictures. It too is in a lovely part of town. Our tour started and ended there. Around the water tower were many horse drawn carriages. One reminded me of Robert the Rose Horse. You can see that it was a rainy day, but that didn’t matter at all. It was great fun.

After our tour, by way of the Magnificent Mile - a very expensive shopping district - we decided to drag our tired feet to Marshall Field’s Department Store. It’s been bought by the evil empire of Macy’s, but we’re calling it Marshall Fields. I had heard about the store from my friend Anna who loved Chicago, but I figured she was just crazy. Then we saw the store.

The ground floor has columns with Corinthian capitals throughout. The wide stairs have curled banisters. There is a fountain inside - we now have blaring music and silly shops, maybe Snoopy as in the MSP mall. Marshall Fields, one store, has a fountain. The central part is open through the eight stories to the top. At the top of that 8th floor is a mosaic ceiling - designed, once again, by Tiffany. Here is a photo of the ceiling. Anna was right. Such a splendid store - it was just too good to believe. So we went back to our hotel, and decided to ponder all this in our hearts before returning to downtown Chicago the next day.

Sunday was a beautiful day. Warm, no rain, and I remember it being sunny (which may not be true, but all days are sunny when good things are happening). We went to the Chicago Cultural Center - the original Chicago Public Library. There is a cow out front. Cows are big in Chicago - not necessarily from the Chicago Stockyards, which are themselves matter of legend, but frequently from Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow. The cow is blamed for the fire of 1861, for in the barn of Mrs. O’Leary a cow kicked over a lantern which set the straw on fire, which set the barn on fire, which set the town on fire. So there is a cow outside the library.

The inside of the Cultural Center/Library was incredible. Mosaics, again by Tiffany. The rooms on the 3rd floor were modeled after a Doge’s palace in Italy somewhere. Around the walls were mosaics with names of famous thinkers or authors. Some of them, I am ashamed to admit, I didn’t recognize. Perhaps people used to be more educated than they are now - or perhaps I’m not as educated as I think I am. But if you were sitting at a table in a reference area, and famous people were plastered over the ceiling, wouldn’t you want to know who they were? And wouldn’t you ask the reference librarian for assistance in finding out, and in reading works by them? I think it’s a great idea.

We took a bus to the Hull House, where I learned that liberal activists have disliked war for a long time, and that those women, like Mrs. Banks in Mary Poppins, actually did things and made a difference, and helped people, and it’s the sort of thing I’m interested in myself! But the Hull House was closed. A really nice person let us in for 10 minutes, but she was there on her day off, and we shouldn’t have been in at all. So we went to Little Italy, had an iced lemonade (which is like a snow cone only much better, with real lemon in it) and then went to Navy Pier.

Navy Pier was an amusement park, like Coney Island or Asbury Park. Permanent amusement park. It was remodeled and updated in about 1995, so it’s not rickety and junky, but pretty good. Seemed like a fun place to take kids, but very crowded. We went to see the stained glass windows - which Tiffany again had designed. From all the Tiffany stuff we saw, you’d think he was from Chicago, not New York - but he was the best, and the Chicago architects knew it. Chicago was being rebuilt at the time Tiffany was working, so he made his mark in Chicago. Anne knew about an architect Louis Sullivan, and we looked at LOTS of his buildings, and they were great. He worked a lot with Tiffany. Anyway, we saw many stained glass windows. And when we were done looking at hundreds of windows, and totally exhausted, we had dinner in a real restaurant, and then walked through the amusement park, watched the kids on the carousel, and went back downtown.

It was getting dark, but I was determined to see the fountain. I took a lot of pictures of it, but they didn’t come out at night. However, it was a gigantic, old fashioned fountain, with lights under the water and shining through the water. It looked like a birthday cake, except it was huge. I was mightily impressed. Anne was exhausted. So, we went back to sleep - but I got to return the next day.

Monday, we went to the Chicago History Museum. It was in a fabulous park (which had a little fountain). Anne visited the Christian Dior exhibit; I poked around the museum and saw a replica of the stockyard gate (again by Louis Sullivan). Then my niece Heather joined us for lunch, and Anne went home. Goodbye, Anne.

But Heather and I went back to the fountain! It has sea horses, not just water and a birthday cake appearance. And bunches of things that look like cat tails. It’s modeled after some fountain in France - only twice the size. Americans are all like Texans, I suppose.

And, after the fountain, we saw the boots. In Grant Park in the middle of Chicago, there is a field of boots. The boots are one pair for each American soldier who has died in Iraq. I took this picture for Caity: it is her kind of peace statement/public art.

Then Heather and I went to shop for a graduation present for her, and finally, much tired, very used up, I went home.
But I like Chicago! And I want to go back!