Growing Up In Roseland Chicago Far South Side Part 3

Sometimes my work has called me to the old neighborhood.

I drive past some of the old hang outs and can't help but pull over and look around.

There was Pete's basement apartment where I spent a good deal of time.

1966-Pete and I bought a 1938 Packard for $200.We would work on that old car for hours and hours,we chopped the fenders to make it look cool,painted over the original black colors with more black paint because that's all we had.

We seldom had the old car running and it sat on the street facing Wentworth Ave for months.We really didn't have much of a clue as to what we were doing.

There was the old vacant Pullman buildings which were huge.These were just south of 111th street.They were empty,just a lot of old junked equipment all over.Many buildings were connected in a V like shape.The roof's were where we spent time with hundreds of other kids who had made this discovery.It was a place for drugs if you wanted,most of my friends just wanted a place to hang out.

There were the 5 silos at 107th which were filled with sawdust.This was at Midland Chemical Company at 400 w 107st.

The silos were connected and the center silo had rickety old wood steps going to the top in a spiral.We would climb to the to being startled by rats at the bottom and pigeons at the top.We could only do this at night because the company was occupied during the day.I later worked for this company from 1967 to 1974.

The center solo had a door at the top where we could climb out and watch the dawn climb over Lake Michigan.We had radios with us and how well I remember hearing Sky Pilot by Eric Burden being played as loud as we could.

The silos were just a great place to be alone too,I spent many nights up there.

There was the Pumping station at the end of my street at 104th place where water was pumped to the south side of Chicago.

The few employees that were there didn't mind if we came in and looked around.What an amazing place with marble floors and enormous pumps painted bright green.

Just behind the pumping station was the local indoor swimming pool.There was only boys and girls days,no mixing of the sexes then.The water temp seemed to be at freezing no matter what time of the year. Behind the swimming pool and next to the tracks was a baseball field where I spent a great deal of my youth.There wasn't much of a left field,but we didn't really care.

more to come