What do you call your neighborhood in Elmhurst? I mean, do you say that you live by the quarry, by East End Pool, York Commons, off Spring Road? Can we agree that most sections of Elmhurst are identified by landmarks such as these?
Well, I grew up in North Elmhurst. Our identifier was simply, North. We really should have had our own town name with our own zip code and our own parades, because it was different growing up in North Elmhurst. At least it was for me back in the 1970's and 1980's.
Let's be clear, first of all, on what geographically constitutes North Elmhurst. It's the neighborhood north of the Eisenhower Expressway, south of Grand Avenue, east of York Road, and west of the gun club.
Exhibit A: There was a gun club just east of North Elmhurst. It was between Mount Emblem and Elm Lawn cemeteries. Exhibit B: We had two cemeteries flanking the gun club along the east border of North Elmhurst. I guess you could call the gun club or one of the cemeteries a landmark, but it's really not the same as saying, "I live by The Lizzardo Museum."
Our notable places were a little more suspect than the rest of Elmhurst. We had the power lines separating North Elmhurst and unincorporated North Elmhurst, Jo-Jo's convenience store on York Road and The Wooden Park by Conrad Fischer Elementary School as reference points.
Let me take a moment here to describe The Wooden Park. First of all, to call it a "park" was a stretch. It was built from gray, rotted out four-by-fours, rusty chains and old spare tires, and it was designed and constructed with the same care that a 2-year-old uses to build a cabin with Lincoln Logs. There were no safety precautions whatsoever at The Wooden Park. A splinter from the wood was like getting knifed in the arm, and it was a given that shards of wood chips from the ground of the park were going to get stuck in your shoes.
In North Elmhurst, we didn't have sidewalks, we heard the constant roar of airplanes landing at O'Hare, and special occasions were celebrated by going to The Spot in Bensenville. When you factor in all of these things, growing up in North Elmhurst gave you a certain identity.
In Elmhurst, kids could enjoy one of two public swimming pools, walk over to Soukup's, go to the library or see a movie. In North Elmhurst, we would go creek-jumping, try to buy smokes at the cigarette hut or sneak into the swimming pool at the Holiday Inn.
The distinction of being a North Elmhurst native wasn't shameful, though. We just felt a little alienated. Despite my cynicism here, we were a proud tribe. We loved places like Yorky's, Christopher's Restaurant and Andy's Pizza (Best. Pizza. Ever). There was also the Elmhurst North Baseball Association, ice skating at Crestview Park, and plenty of urban legends (most of which are unfit for print).
And, we had The Wooden Park.