My dad and stepmom had the “Wednesday Journal” delivered to the house for years. It was the local Oak Park neighborhood periodical.
My dad always joked that he read it because of the police blotter. Looking to see if my stepbrothers or I did something stupid.
My youngest stepbrother and I gave him that opportunity when we got busted for underage drinking up on the hill by Ridgeland Commons.
I’ve already peaked at it this morning and came across an article about a shrub or a small tree. It is somehow growing off of the CTA platform at Harlem where the Lake Street line ends.
There wasn’t a picture on the digital article that I read so I had to imagine it through the writers words.
The viaduct that hovers over Harlem Avenue hasn’t been updated or cleaned in the fifty years I’ve known it. It is old and decrepit with one purpose… move CTA trains over Harlem Avenue. Every other viaduct in Oak Park has been a canvas for local schools to paint colorful murals. Not this busy tunnel though.
Sometime I’ll have to drive over to where Oak Park, Forest Park and River Forest converge and see this miraculous tree growing in the middle of urban decay. Maybe I should kill two birds with one stone and grab a hotdog at Parky’s when I visit a tree growing off the Lake Street elevated.
This won’t be the first time I’ve seen nature and infrastructure converge…
My mom’s family comes from a small town nestled halfway between Indianapolis and Cincinnati called Greensburg, Indiana.
The county courthouse is nestled in the middle of the town square. It is a picturesque image of Americana. There was a bakery located on that square owned by my mother’s Grandfather at the beginning of the last century.
….but growing on the roof of the County capital building is a tree. That tree has been living there for 100 years. If you drive along the highway cutting through southeast Indiana you’ll notice a billboard. On it they ask you to visit the famous tree in Greensburg. It’s the main attraction in this old German town.
I’m not sure how or why these two trees have found such places to nestle their roots. Maybe the residents of a small Indiana town and the motorists driving on Harlem Avenue need a symbol of hope?
I just think it’s a quest to find beauty misplaced in the ugliness all around us.
When I die I’m going to have Hazel and the boys put my ashes in a tree pod urn. I’ve seen these advertised… instead of a casket your ashes are put into the dirt of a small tree. Then the family plants it in the yard so Grampa can grow into an oak tree.
Instead of sneaking into the forest preserve to plant my tree, I want the Shepkids to sneak into the Board of Trade and plant my casket pod at the base of Ceres.
By the turn of the next century a big tree will be growing on the statue overlooking LaSalle Street.
Let’s switch the focus from trees to the American flag. I know it’s pride month and the rainbow flag has its place, but today is Flag Day.
I don’t care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican. Raise an American Flag high and show respect to the home of the brave. It might not be the perfect pot of Gumbo, but it’s all we have…. ‘Merica!
