LIF E LES S O NS
The Fondness of Memories Pat Cirrincione I grew up on the west side of Chicago, not far from Garfield Park. From ages six to thirteen, my family and I lived in my paternal grandparents’ three-flat on Kildare Avenue, where we occupied the third floor (the top floor) residence. Since heat tends to rise to the top level, it meant that our summers were especially hot. To keep the house temperature down, Mom would pull the drapes and blinds closed, and keep a fan going to draw the heat out (air conditioning was an unheard of commodity back then). I didn’t realize at the time that God had a plan for each of us, or I would have been inquiring about why dealing with sweltering heat was a part of my life at such a tender age. Little did I know that God was about to do an incredible “thing” in our lives. I had just turned nine when Mom discovered the Offthe-Street Club for boys and girls. It was a place to learn woodworking and how to build bird houses. Kids could take cooking classes or participate in performing arts or sports. It was a place that took us to White Sox baseball games during the summer, to rodeos where I met the Cisco Kid and Poncho! The best part of their summer camp program was that it began as soon as school let out for the summer. Mom thought it was just what her children needed, to be outside all day and away from the city, out in a suburb called Wheaton.
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The first summer Mom signed us up for the day camp experience, which ran from Monday through Friday. She walked her three children (along with their camp bags filled with lunch, bathing suits and towels) to the pick-up spot, which was in front of the Marbro movie theatre (where I eventually would watch the “The Ten Commandments”). There were so many children that a bus and truck were needed for the trip to the country.
By eight in the morning, we were off on our first summer adventure. I remember being amazed as we left the brick-and-mortar and paved streets of the city to countryside I didn’t know existed. Farms, dirt roads, lakes, the Sky-Hi outdoor movie theatre. It was like entering another world. Had we landed in a different country? No noise except for our own chatter. It was amazing. Butterfield Road was dirt and gravel, with farms on either side. The air was so
