Janet Kuypers
1/22/19
Stories have been told
that when the Chicago mafia
would dispose of bodies
a century ago, they would
bury them in what is now
forest preserves in Chicago’s
south west suburbs.
A few decades after
the Chicago mob
had made its mark,
scientists developed
the first self-sustaining
nuclear reactor at the
University of Chicago,
under the west-viewing stands
of their football stadium.
Operational for only one year,
this “Chicago Pile One”
was disassembled
and buried at one of
the forest preserves in
a south west suburb
of Chicago.
I doubt my dad
was feeling scientific,
or even thinking about
his father in-law
(who did odd jobs for
the mob back in the day),
but my dad decided
to move out of Chicago
and into a south west
suburb; he could get
a ton of land for cheap,
and his concrete company
could help him build a
nice house for the family.
It was a nice place
to raise kids,
but far enough away
from Chicago
to still need to use
50-pound salt blocks
for well water.
It was a simpler life
riding our bikes
around those nearby
forest preserves,
and... I never got
radiation burns there,
and I didn’t discover
any buried bodies.
So, I don’t know
if it was the mafia
or the scientists
who gentrified
this area south
and west of Chicago,
and I can’t say
it was my father’s doing,
but all I know
is that after he lived
there for a while,
his whole town
became so upscale.
So this is when
I moved back
into Chicago,
but when I did,
very straight me
first moved into
a very gay
neighborhood.
Unlucky for me,
I couldn’t stay,
so I moved
not to where
my friends lived, but
very white me
moved to a
very Hispanic
neighborhood,
just north of where
gangs would pick
you out because
of the color of
your skin.
And yeah,
I lived there for years,
the rent was cheap,
I had more space,
though I got tired
of people breaking
into my car, it was
almost like clockwork.
Still, I’d walk alone at night,
I’d watch my surroundings,
and I always stayed safe.
I was fine, really, because
there was no place
I’d rather be.
#
I’ve been moved away
from Chicago for years now,
but recently I went back
and visited my
old stomping grounds.
I was stunned when I saw
the streets in my old
neighborhood now lined
with martini bars,
kitschy shoppes
from local artists,
and vegetarian restaurants.
And although I
don’t believe it,
that’s when I was told
that I must come
from a long line
of gentrifiers.
Now, by the strict
definition, that’s
not true. A gentrifier
buys old houses
and renovates them
so they’re more upscale.
I don’t do that.
I just move somewhere
and change the
neighborhood instead.
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