It was 1941 and my dad was in Gary to make money before finishing his schooling. He worked at one of the steel plants and he lived here. This is the address to which my grandmother mailed a letter in December of that year. I wrote about it in the post just below. Out of curiosity I looked it up on the Bing maps and here it is. Just a hop, not even add the skip and the jump from the Indiana Toll Road.

Of course, that road didn’t exist then – it was built when I was little and it went a bit north of my maternal grandparents’ house. The engineers rented a large room from my grandmother to serve as their field office. I used to ride my bike up to the overpass and watch the traffic go east and west. Just a rural girl leaning on the side rail – no need for chain link fencing then. I wanted to be in one of those cars. I actually did live in Sacramento for awhile, but I am back.

I lived in Palatine, Illinois also and Mother and Daddy drove over on that road and I drove to Scott on it. Not once did my father remark he had lived just that wee bit to the side.

I think it looked different then.