As I drove down the streets of my childhood, I was astounded at all of the changes that have occurred, and not changes in a good way. The area has become blighted, it is filled with urban decay.
In my mind, this small Polish suburb of Chicago is still my youthful cocoon, my safe place. Where everyone knew whom my parents were, and would greet me by my name. Or on several rare occasions yelled for me to stop whatever naughty deed I was doing, and announced that they were calling my mother as soon as that got inside.
As I approached the corner of 14th Street and Lincoln I was anticipating seeing the Polish Catholic church that my grandfather helped established, Holy Rosary. Six years ago I attended my Aunt's funeral and was shocked to learn that the church of my youth had a new corner stone announcing its name Queen of Peace.
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| My childhood church, Holy Rosary, renamed in the 1990's, Queen of Peace. |
Today I was disappointed at the disrepair of this beautiful church that was established by Polish immigrants in 1904.
Saddened by all of the urban decay that I was surrounded by, I decided that I would not let these new memories effect me in a negative way, and quickly changed my thinking. I will keep my positive childhood memories tucked close to my heart and look at this neighborhood through the eyes of my youth.
This blog post has taken me on a different path than I had intended. My intent was to tell you about the bell ringer and bell tower of this church, but this post is long enough so I will save it for tomorrow.
Cheerfully,
Paulette
What a beautiful old building! It is sad to see things change, especially when whole areas fall into disrepair. And I wonder why. People have more resources today than they did then, families are smaller rather than larger. What is it that makes the difference? Is it that the sense of pride or sense of responsibility is gone? Have we turned all those things over to the government?
ReplyDeleteIt is sad to see such drastic changes to the neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteThis is a beautiful church, I don't know why they wouldn't want to keep it up. Change isn't always good. As a child I lived in a hotel in Dallas, Tx and I don't recognize it at all and the area has become run down too.
ReplyDeleteIts very sad to go back somewhere once so familiar only to find it has been neglected and certain parts left to rack and ruin. You will always have the lovely memories though.
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