On the third of May, I arrived in Berwyn. I left Cicero at 8:35 P.M, on some day
in May. And when I arrived at North
Riverside early next morning; I should have arrived at 6:46, but the bus was an
hour late. Oak Park seemed like such a wonderful place, from the glimpse which
I got of it from the bus and the little I could walk through the streets. I
feared to go very far from the bus stand, as they usually would arrive late and
I wanted to start as near the correct time as possible.
The
impression I had was that my family was leaving the West Side of Chicago and
entering the Southern Suburbs; the most cleaner of splendid walking paths over
the Salt Creek forest preserves, which is here of wide width and depth, it also
gives us a lot of sewer tube drop offs.
It was easy
to get to a pretty good bowling alley,
near by anyway, and I could come after lunch to the Brookfield Zoo. Here I would
stop for the benches at the Lions and Tigers section. I had for a snack, or
rather more strength, an ice cream bar done up some way with black chocolate, which
was very good but made me thirsty. (Mem. get receipt for my father.) I asked
the zoo keeper, and he said he was called “Mr. Walrus," and that, as it
was an irrational wish, he should be able to get referred to anywhere along the
Zoo walking paths.
I found that
my smattering of Bohemian was very useful here, indeed, I don't know how, I
should be able to talk to our neighbors without it.
Having had
some time at my disposal when in Chicago, I had visited the Museum of Science and Industry, and made
search among the books and maps in the library regarding Western Electric; it
had struck me that some foreknowledge of the work place could hardly fail to
have some importance in dealing with various job openings in this county.
I found that
the districts they named arranged in the extreme west side of the county, had
many inhabited villages the borders of three streets, North Avenue, Wolf Road,
and Twenty Second Street, in the midst of the Lagrange Park housing area; one
of the widest and most travelled portions of Cook County.
I was definitely
able to bike to Brookfield Zoo through the forest preserve along Salt Creek going
in back of the locality of the Westchester’s Eden Bowling Lanes , as there are several
paths through these forest preserves to get to many places without physically pedal biking through the streets; I’d
get no hits, the close towns were not very visible along the paths along Salt
Creek. I shall enter the zoo here, as my fresh memory enjoys looking at the Ape
House and those Walrus Pools.
In the public
schools of Westchester there were many stinky groups of kids: bored students in
the kindergartens, first through sixth grade, and mixed with them the Seventh
and Eight Graders, who are going to the Provisos East or West; the one’s near
Hillside in the West, and Berwyn type in the East. I am going among the Westers,
who claim to be interested in science and technology, music, and art. Their
instructors be so ordering, for when the new students start their classes in
the nineth level, they found the out of towners settled in it.
I tried to read
every line in our school books that were assigned to us during classroom
time. My understanding of words was so little that I was continually gathered
into my dictionary that the teachers thought it was as if I was in the center
of some sort of brain misunderstanding whirlpool; if I were to be allowed to stay in class, I would
be instructed to write huge notes when I got home and show them to the teacher
the next day. (Mem., I many times was tasked to write the answers to all of the
assigned book pages for each class.)
I did sleep many times in various classes, although
my desk was uncomfortable and rough, and
even though I slept, I got called on for all sorts of questionable school
classes. There was a hearable snoring each hour from me in the back rows, which
may have had something to do with me being told to stay after school; or it may
have been the pranks that I wish I hadn’t had other kids do to me along, with their
putting bathroom swirls into my drinking cup instead of the water in our cafeteria,
and boy I was still thirsty. Towards the end of science class, I slept and was
wakened by the continuous shouting at me by my science instructor, so I guess I
must have been snoring loudly then.
I had break
stops along my mile foot work during gym class, and I missed out of the basketball
shootings because of that gym teacher which said to me was "If you can’t
climb the climbing coils or sit up on time, you need to run around the school
until the end of class", and my feet felt stuffed with their forced steps,
a very repellent walk which to me was as close to a dash, which they call
"imps go by by".
A man, walking in the prairie path, along
the stream, came up to a house after he found some coins in the path, and knocked
on the door and was answered by a man who turned into a snapping turtle as the
clouds bunched up. The turtle bit him
and he ran away. At home, when the
clouds bunch up and rain begins to fall, I turn into a box turtle. And it boggles my mind that no one ever
notices that I am different from my real self.
My parents kept telling me to cut the lawn and make my bed. The gym teacher told me to be a watch out
kid, wearing a glowing orange strap, making certain other students do not walk
across the street when a car is coming.
And, rain or shine, I was a turtle or a human, and nobody paid any
attention to me. I sure don’t want to
get close to anyone and bite them to turn them into something what they would
think was enjoyable for me.
I enjoyed reading Dracula I enjoyed writing this I hope you enjoy reading this I hope you enjoy reading these TOO
No comments:
Post a Comment