The South Side is a state of mind and a place of love. My roots go back to both sets of grandparents who joined thousands of other Black folk during the Great Migration. They helped build a Black middle class in Woodlawn and Burnside.
From childhood to adulthood, I’ve dwelled in several neighborhoods. Eating Baldwin Ice Cream and riding the swings at Cole Park in Chatham. Eating Italian chicken salad at Calabria Imports in Beverly. Taking phone-less meditative walks in historic Pullman (where an Uber driver remarked how much the area looked like his Polish town). Buying sweet potato squares at Abundance Bakery in Bronzeville. Bike-riding the lakefront from Hyde Park.
These days I drive or walk Stony Island daily, now that my family lives in Avalon Park, a bedroom community where neighbors have cookouts all summer and lovingly tend to their lawns. We are one of those cookout families, too, but we order takeout at least once a month from the nearby Medley Grill & BBQ.
We’re trying to up our lawn game.
