My Town

It was 'My Town' for 7 of the most developing and fruitful years of my life. Say what you will about 'My Town', but for me, it was a treasure trove. For the first nearly 18 years of my life, I had not travelled more than 200 miles from home, a place that never was really home to me. The Eight years of residency in San Francisco had its beauty and charm, but it does not compare to 'My Town'. Inhaling its delta breezes, I have loved the feel of home in sunny Sacramento for some 35 years. I have sat and feasted from its many lessons, but no place has infused me with a pure grit and a sure faith like 'My Town'. I had heard of its notoriety for corruption, violence, and crime, but as the big bus arrived in the windy city, I gazed at the skyline. I, a shy and naive teenage country boy, quickly became well aware, because my first lesson was learned within minutes of my arrival. He, a clever and shrewd non-violent criminal, neither touched nor frightened me. And he, with his weapons of a smooth tongue and lying lips, robbed me of $10. He was so smooth that I never knew what had happened to me until my relative informed me on the way home. 'My Town' left me with memories for a life time. Why, the largest venue of my still young life took place in 'My Town'. I attended and assisted in a Billy Graham Crusade at The Mc Cormick Place. Some fifty years ago, I met the love of my life in 'My Town', and we are 48 years married and growing old together. Oh, the memories are starting to flow like a river. But I must cease with these last three. My memory is over-charged with encounters most enriching of the people of the night on Clark Street, of Old Town, and of my great job at Marshall Fields on State Street, a most super charged and unforgettable place with the sweet-flowing of people going here and there. 050521cjPS