An envisioning. . . windy Chicago afternoon in March of 1972 and a bench in the park.
Oh to be here.
Outing to the city to go shopping and have dinner. Nothing fun to buy and time to kill. A cab over to Lake Shore Drive and the hotel where great uncle worked.
Mother spending entire months with them. Twelve brothers and sisters and not living close to the fancy high school. Hard to get into but two hours each way. The other easier and home on weekends.
But the same park and hours spent. Great uncle having worked there doing something. No one being able to remember what, but there for decades and months and years spent sitting on the bench with her auntie waiting for him to finish. Better than sitting in the apartment but still. Watching people go in and out the front door and the chauffeurs opening and shutting the doors of their cars for what seemed like an eternity.
A long time ago and a car of her own long since. No chauffeur but only people way up on the North Shore having them anyway. But a good place to work it was. Fancy and the beach to go to.
Not supposed to but the manageress liking Mother’s aunt and letting her have her own cabana. Supposed to be only for guests but one down at the end where no one went. The big lady’s room with all its marble in the lobby to change in and out of one’s bathing suit and ice-cold sodas from the machine in the Housekeeping lounge. Books to sit in the sand and read and lunch out of a picnic basket.
Cannoli from the little bakery near the apartment and sand between one’s toes . . . .perfect . . . . a lifetime of Saturdays to come but none as wonderful as that one . . .
This is not my story. Rather it is the story of my good friend John S. who has entrusted me with it to share with you. It is the story of a gentleman who immigrated to America from Italy around the time of the first World War and made a life in Chicago for himself and his wife and family, working for years in a grand hotel with a little park opposite where they sat and waited for him.
