Uncle Otto came back to Chicago to visit this week, driven by his daughter and son-in-law, Cheryl and Dick. It had been over 50 years since he had moved his family to Louisville and many decades since his last visit to his hometown. I drove them, along with my mom, Edith (his sister) on a nostalgic tour of the old neighborhoods. First came their home in the Wells Park/Lincoln Square area. Here are Otto and Cheryl in front of their old place, along with Edith and Dick (click to enlarge photos)...
Next came the Roscoe Village neighborhood where Otto and Edith had grown up as children. Their father, my grandfather, had owned this tavern and they had grown up living above the business.
Then we went to our Paulina Street home in the Lakeview neighborhood where Linda and had I had grown up, and where Cheryl had lived her first few years before moving to the house shown earlier in this post (both buildings owned by our grandfather)...
A drive to the nearby Lincoln- Belmont shipping area brought back memories to all of us, though few of the businesses we had patronized back in the 1950s-1970s remained. One notable exception was our favorite bakery, Dinkels, which is still going strong and still with the original sign out front...
Uncle Otto also wanted to drive by the Aragon Ballroom where he and his wife, Mary, had often spent evenings dancing the night away...
Next it was to Lake Shore Drive and a stop at Montrose Harbor with its majestic view of Chicago's skyline in the background...
...and finally to Linda's place for a family get-together and pizza supper. Here are the reunited siblings, now 87 and 92 respectively...
...and some of the rest of the family enjoying the family reunion...
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