by fauxcelt
When I was born in 1959, we were living in Hyde Park on the south side of Chicago because my father wanted to live close to his job at the University of Chicago.
My earliest memory of the "L" is riding on Sixty-Third Street on a summer day in my father's car underneath the tracks sometime between 1960 and 1965. I especially remember the pattern of the shadows which were cast by the elevated structure on the street and the buildings alongside the street. I also remember how noisy the trains were as they ran by over our heads.
When I was seven, my father took me to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field one day. Since we had moved further south by this time, we had to ride the Jeffrey Avenue bus to the end of the "L" line at Sixty-Third Street. Then we rode the "L" into downtown. When we got to the Loop, I don't remember what station we got off at but I do remember that we walked down the stairs to the street and then we walked down more stairs into the subway. I remember complaining to my father that the subway was too noisy. I also remember being scared that the train might fall off when it went around one of the tight curves in the Loop. My father tried to reassure me by telling me that the trains weren't going to fall off the elevated structure (this was before the infamous accident in February 1977). I don't remember much of the rest of that trip except for the fact that I did have a good time at the game.
In 1969, when they finished extending the "L" tracks in the median of the Dan Ryan all of the way south to Ninety-Fifth Street, we would catch a bus on Ninety-Third Street to ride to the end of the line station at Ninety-Fifth.
One summer day in 1969 when I was riding with my mother on the Eisenhower Expressway, I noticed that the tracks in the median of the Expressway had a branch (the Douglas Park branch) that rose up and turned left to go south away from the Expressway. When I asked my mother about this branch, she said she didn't know much about it and wasn't sure where they went to.
However, when I asked my father about these branch tracks, he told me about the Douglas Park branch and offered to take me for a ride on this branch on Labor Day because he was off from work that day. By this time, both of my parents had noticed that I was interested in trains and they would indulge this interest when they could afford to. I think there must have been a White Sox game that day because the train on the Dan Ryan was standing room only until it stopped at Thirty-Fifth Street. It seemed as if half of the people on the train got off at Thirty-Fifth Street.
My earliest memory of the "L" is riding on Sixty-Third Street on a summer day in my father's car underneath the tracks sometime between 1960 and 1965. I especially remember the pattern of the shadows which were cast by the elevated structure on the street and the buildings alongside the street. I also remember how noisy the trains were as they ran by over our heads.
When I was seven, my father took me to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field one day. Since we had moved further south by this time, we had to ride the Jeffrey Avenue bus to the end of the "L" line at Sixty-Third Street. Then we rode the "L" into downtown. When we got to the Loop, I don't remember what station we got off at but I do remember that we walked down the stairs to the street and then we walked down more stairs into the subway. I remember complaining to my father that the subway was too noisy. I also remember being scared that the train might fall off when it went around one of the tight curves in the Loop. My father tried to reassure me by telling me that the trains weren't going to fall off the elevated structure (this was before the infamous accident in February 1977). I don't remember much of the rest of that trip except for the fact that I did have a good time at the game.
In 1969, when they finished extending the "L" tracks in the median of the Dan Ryan all of the way south to Ninety-Fifth Street, we would catch a bus on Ninety-Third Street to ride to the end of the line station at Ninety-Fifth.
One summer day in 1969 when I was riding with my mother on the Eisenhower Expressway, I noticed that the tracks in the median of the Expressway had a branch (the Douglas Park branch) that rose up and turned left to go south away from the Expressway. When I asked my mother about this branch, she said she didn't know much about it and wasn't sure where they went to.
However, when I asked my father about these branch tracks, he told me about the Douglas Park branch and offered to take me for a ride on this branch on Labor Day because he was off from work that day. By this time, both of my parents had noticed that I was interested in trains and they would indulge this interest when they could afford to. I think there must have been a White Sox game that day because the train on the Dan Ryan was standing room only until it stopped at Thirty-Fifth Street. It seemed as if half of the people on the train got off at Thirty-Fifth Street.
