Yorkville Collage

The idea was to get a photo of the patriotic (or suggestive?  You be the judge) sign for Pride Pantry, but the end result is a picture that speaks a thousand words; a representation, perhaps, of the people from the little town of Yorkville, Illinois.

Oh, well.

While hiking through the woods last weekend, I stumbled upon this oddity.  It is a long-abandoned well, in the middle of the woods, forgotten by time.  According to an historical aerial map of the area, the pump was once adjacent to a driveway connecting the road to a picnic grove.  The driveway is long gone.  Nearby, there are some recreational areas used for picnics, sports, and family gatherings.  There is even a more modern pump down the road.  Sadly, this one has been out of sight and out of mind for decades, rusting away and slowly being swallowed by wilderness.

Squirrel Nest Sunset

I snapped this from my roof today as the sun was setting.  I imagine a boy squirrel and a girl squirrel cuddling in that nest, also watching the sun set.

Grey juxtoposition

Alley Boat.

The Jefferson Nickelodeon

The Jefferson Nickelodeon, located at 4768 N. Milwaukee Ave, first opened in 1914.  It was a small single-screen theater of a Neoclassical design, designed by architect E.M. Newman.  Seating 294, it primarily served the growing Jefferson Park neighborhood, and by 1917 became the Progress Theatre.  It closed as a theatre in 1923, several years before movies had sound.  In the ninety years since it closed as a theater, it has housed many small business, the latest of which was a cabinet maker. Currently, it is vacant and for rent (according to the signs). 

Many people pass this small building up without ever noticing the "Jefferson" epigraph.  Recently, the entire building was painted a dark maroon color, further obscuring the word.  Previously, the building was painted in such a way that the word "Jefferson" really stood out.  This building is one of my favorite buildings due to its historical significance as one of the neighborhood's earlier (if not earliest) theaters, and because of its low-key existence and mysterious nature.

Cry me a river and build me a bridge.

This bridge crosses the North Branch of the Chicago River north of Foster Ave, in Labagh Woods.  It was a train bridge until some years back when the route was discontinued.  Last year or so, the tracks were pulled up and plans to turn this abandoned right of way into a trail are supposedly in the works.  As of now, the path isn't really conducive to biking or jogging, since the large rocks are still there, unless it's intended to be an "extreme" trail.  Mostly, this area is frequented by people walking dogs.  And photographers.  And evidently, taggers.

For as long as I can remember, up until recently, this section of woods attracted the kind of ghoulish grime you never would see in everyday life.  My friends and I would ride our bikes on the nearby trails, and it wasn't unusual to see "odd" people out there.  We used to think they were Satanists.  Maybe they were homeless, maybe they were just rebellious teens.  Whatever the case, they used a lot of drugs and trashed the place.  We'd see needles and little baggies all over the ground.  Beer cans, beer bottles, all kinds of trash.  It was kind of like a mecca for crackheads and wayward hobos.  One evening, as a couple friends of mine and I were heading out of the woods after hitting the bike humps, we encountered a group of crazies coming in- and they all wore black trench coats and looked to be preparing for an animal sacrifice.  I was thankful to be leaving at that time!

Another regularity were the cars.  Just under this bridge, on any given day, there would be up to three cars, minivans, or Jeeps upside down in the river.  They had been completely charred and then bombed with graffiti.  The act itself wasn't what confused me, considering the usual clientele.  It was a question of how did they ever get the cars there?  It would have been impossible to drive them up the bridge to push them over at that spot.  The only possible way was if they pushed the cars down the embankment, but even that seems unlikely, seeing as how narrow and jagged the embankment is between the trees. 

And the bridge has always been artfully decorated, but these days it seems people are putting a lot more time and effort into the project.  Mostly, these are taggings and not gang graffiti.  I often wonder how someone could do this much work and not get noticed.

The demise of the mom & pop pet shop

When was the last time you went to a REAL pet shop?  I'm not talking about Petco.  I'm not talking about Pet Supplies Plus, and I'm not talking about PetSmart, and I sure as heck am not talking about the cute little doggy and kitty boutiques that have popped up on every corner in every hip neighborhood in Chicago (and elsewhere).  I mean, when was the last time you went to a real pet shop, where you were greeted by the owner with a smile, where you could almost always find what you're looking for, where you could chat with the employees about biological filtration and the effectiveness of Bio-Balls vs. porous ceramic rings?  Where, in the summertime, there's always a fan on?  Where the bell rings when the door is opened?  Where the employees are always wet with aquarium water?  And the smell- the aroma of aquarium water and pine bedding, maybe some dry dog food thrown in the mix. 

I have noticed that over the last few years, the classic pet store model is a dying breed among the giants and the holistic/organic/fair trade chihuahua boutiques.  It seems shops like this are losing popularity as various factors arise- the birth of the Internet, and the appeal of websites such as Ebay, Craigslist, and a barrage of pet supply websites (including PetSmart, etc).  People don't want to spend a little extra, but there's one thing they always expect from the little guys- information.  They know where the real good information is.  And they want it free, so they can go home to their Petco-bought aquarium setup and their puggles they bought on the Internet.

When I was very young, there was no Internet to buy and sell pets and pet supplies, and it seemed there were pet stores all over.  There was "Your One Stop Pet Shop" in my neighborhood.  That's what it was called.  It was a tiny little store. I bought some of my first aquarium stuff there.  And I bought my first Solomen Islands ground boa there too.  The store was run by a young couple.  It was great.  Once they knew me, they were cool with me just coming in to look at the fish, unattended.  No pressure on their part.  That store has been gone for awhile now.

And I remember King Coral, back when it was on Milwaukee Avenue, just northwest of the Portage Theater.  I remember the racks and racks of fish aquariums, no substrate, just fish in tanks on wrought-iron racks, wall-to-wall.  They had a store iguana in there that would just hang out.  He would often be found basking on top of a fluorescent light fixture for the aquariums.  Later, they'd switch locations and move to Montrose and Central.  The same setup, same awesome variety of fish, same humid fish tank/lemon scent combo aroma.  I think they are still open in Mount Prospect somewhere...

And who can forget Animal Kingdom in Logan Square, with its gaudy, outdated hand-painted exterior (with neon!) and its chaotic interior, featuring exotic residents ranging from a jaguar, coyote, spoonbill, ducks, and Moe and Curly, the two red-tailed boas?  Though I personally wasn't a huge fan of the place in general (the owners hired anyone who'd work for minimum wage and therefore stuff kinda got out of hand at times), there was a certain appeal the place had.  The sounds of scores of birds cheeping/squawking, floors that never stay clean longer than a few hours, people shouting over the sounds of parrots or dogs, and of course, getting to see a real electric eel on display. 

Many of these places are gone forever, to be replaced by another Cricket, another currency exchange, another eye doctor.  A few places remain.  Coral Reef, in Norridge, is still there.  Living Sea Aquarium is still in business, as is Bit-O-Tropics (surprisingly).  And then of course, there is Ocean Design Aquarium in Dunning Square, where I worked for some years.  It was my first job, meant to be a short-lived one (I was supposed to make enough money to buy a drum set and then quit to pursue my rock star dream).  I was sixteen, just about to begin my junior year in high school.  Soon, I turned seventeen and did buy my drum set.  But I liked the job so much I stayed.  Besides, I never got THAT good at drumming.

And did I stay.  At 18, I graduated high school, and went to college full time at times and part time at others, all the while working at the pet shop.  I worked my way to manager and enjoyed my surroundings, and most of the time, the people too.  The first few years were some of the best times I have ever had.  I spent a lot of time in that shop, and learned a great deal.  Mostly, I learned about people.  I learned about how to communicate with all kinds of people.  I learned to deal with adversity, and to appreciate the bonuses.  And, I learned that I really really hated getting electrocuted.  But that's another story.

Eventually, I moved on, much later than I had intended, but with a whole bunch of learned lessons and memories to cherish (and some to forget!).  Once in a while I think back to those days.  I think that I am who I am partly due to my having worked in such a genuine place, a place free of corporate rule and dress code, surrounded by reptiles and reef aquariums.  And there was certainly a sense of  innocence.  And that's how I had always seen small mom & pop pet shops- small businesses run by honest, hard-working people with mouths to feed, all the while enjoying doing what they loved doing, and ultimately having to make big choices once their breed began to phase out in favor of the big box pet shops and the Internet.  Most couldn't keep up.  Many are still struggling to hang in there, making desperate adjustments and hasty decisions just to make sure they can flip the "closed" sign to "open" the next day. 

I don't think the big stores are bad.  I do think that people should support the small businesses when they can, because otherwise, it's only a matter of time before small pet shops exist only as "retro novelties".  Or worse, become extinct.