This past October, Angie & I took our second road trip to the Midwest, we wanted to make a couple of stops that we had been unable to the first time. One stop was to show Angie where I had spent the town where I had pretty much grown up, I spent the first 11 years of my life there. We had to cut our Christmas trip short because the POS car we had then didn’t like the cold weather plus the relative we had intended to see wasn’t able to host any sort of family gathering that year. We ended up in Champaign instead of driving all the way to DeKalb.
I hadn’t been in that neck of the woods in several years and this was my first time there without any relatives along so driving around was an adventure. First, we drove through Kankakee, approaching from the south side of town via US-45. I didn’t recognize a thing. We drove past the hospital where I was born, then the hospital where I was treated for pneumonia and a broken leg. No, not at the same time.
We were taking the backroads to get to Bonfield from Kankakee, much better scenery that way. Pretty much the only thing one would see from the main road is a whole bunch of corn. The back way has houses, the Kankakee River, and a hill. Funny, I could have sworn the hill was bigger.
The first thing one sees when approaching from the east is the school. The school looked the same, at least on the outside. I would have liked to look around inside but it was a Sunday. We should go back one day when they’re open.
The first right after the school leads to our old home, a three-story split level ranch, plus a basement. The front looked the same, just aqua color instead of green. Mom’s favorite color is green. No, we didn’t go inside but I guess we could have; other siblings have.
This is where things started getting confusing, I’m used to going through town at walking or bicycling speed, not drving speed. We leave the old homestead behind and next thing I know, we’ve gone five blocks. We want to get back to main street so we take the next left we see. Oops, forgot about that garden in the middle of the street! We turn around and try again.
Now we’re at the post office but it doesn’t look the same. The façade doesn’t appear as wide as I remember and the lettering is different. No matter, I’m just there to mail off our condo fee. I drop the envelope into the mailbox and take a look around. Main street sure is empty, no more gas station or café. There is a little convenience store across from the post office. We go in and get some snacks. I chat with the young lady behind the counter while she rings up my white cheddar popcorn.
“Things sure have changed since the last time I was here. I grew up here,” I say.
She asks, “How long has it been since your last visit?”
I reply, “Um, fifteen years. I live on the East Coast now.”
“I’d like to be on the East Coast,” says she but I can see there’s something else on her mind. Probably something like, “What the hell are you doing back here?”
We leave her store and stop at the swimming hole, closed for the season. The swimming hole was originally a limestone quarry, the town’s first industry but the workers eventually dug too deep and hit a spring. While milling around the old quarry, I realize I need to take a leak. I head for the outbuilding only to find it’s not an outbuilding anymore, just changing rooms now. Should have remembered that from my last visit when Dad was in the same prediciment, only then there was still a gas station and café in the next block. I have to resort to finding a tree. Fortunately, I remember a path that leads around one of the fishing ponds except I wind up in a cornfield instead of the heavily wooded area that I expected! So I turn back a few steps and water a tree. I head back to Angie and the car, only to find that I had also wet a bit of my shirt. I make stop at the swimming hole to rinse out my wet spot.
We head back to the old homestead so I can get it on videotape, passing a teenage boy that we had seen outside the convenience store while I was at the mailbox. I’m sure he was wondering why the hell someone with Virginia plates was passing him. Then we headed for out of town going north. I notice one more thing missing, the house that my best friend had lived in. The barn is still there across the street but the only thing left of the house is the driveway. I guess it had been torn down at around the same time the cornfield that had separated our homes started being developed.