The spring rains have come. While it is not raining at the moment, it was raining when I drove to work this morning and it is forecast to rain some more tonight and tomorrow. Furthermore, that early spring, cooler by the lake thing is in full effect. It was 58 degrees at The Outpost this afternoon, but in Streeterville it was 48 degrees at the Mini, under overcast skies. We anxiously await a shifting of the winds to the West, so as to defeat some of the lake cooling.
I grew up in a suburb of Little Rock, Arkansas. It had a population of about 20,000 people, existed right on a freeway, and like many such places, had no real downtown. Downtown had been destroyed by the freeway, and resulting suburbification. We had an Air Force Base, a few factories and warehouses, shopping malls with big honking parking lots, and strip malls galore. I like to tell people that I grew up in a suburb like any other suburb in America. We just did it with a Southern accent.
People I grew up with reacted to this upbringing in surprisingly different ways. Some people opted to stick around. Some people went looking for a better life. A better life can mean a great many things. I have friends who decided they liked life in the country and, in Arkansas, this usually means moving to the Ozarks. Some lasted and stayed in the country. Some didn't adapt really well and moved back to the Little Rock area. Some went looking for a better life via a better job and moved to larger cities elsewhere. Some of those couldn't hack it and moved back to the Little Rock area. Some stayed away. If you're from Arkansas, this usually means moving to Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston, Atlanta, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Memphis, or some other Southern locale. I was the odd one. I headed north, to really big cities.
It is true that before I landed in Chicago I lived in a couple of medium-sized cities, Minneapolis, Minnesota and Austin, Texas, and then in Minneapolis again. Texas didn't agree with me. Then when I was once again in Minneapolis, it became really apparent that it wasn't quite big enough to hold me. Minneapolis is one of those cities that small town people hype as being a big city, "with a small town feel to it." Chicago was the next stop. Chicago has proven to be a real city, in my estimation. It has everything a city needs.
Still, Babs and I (We got toether in Minneapolis, and both of us proved to have a penchant for larger cities. We moved to Chicago together.) seriously considered a move to Manhattan. Babs was being considered as the Communications Director for a Think Tank. I went so far as to get myself certified as a teacher, and school administrator in the State of New York. I interviewed for a couple of jobs. I was offered a job in Harlem. We looked at real estate. People we met either lived in Brooklyn, or on Long Island, and they all commuted to Manhattan. We considered it. As it turns out, the money wasn't good enough to warrant a move to Manhattan. We already lived in a neighborhood in Chicago that is very Brooklyn-like. If we couldn't afford a move to Manhattan, it wasn't worth it. We came back to Chicago and regrouped and moved from the neighborhood to downtown, to Streeterville, to the 14th floor in a Mies Van der Rohe building on the National Historic Registry. We have our city experience, just not in Manhattan, and we love it here.
The suburbs do not hold an appeal for us. The country is a nice place to visit. Wouldn't want to live there. The question is, "What is it about a large city that draws us to it? What is it that makes a city large enough? What is it about a large enough city that makes it liveable and satisfying?" That is a very large question. Part II of this tale will appear here tomorrow.
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