I just arrived in Chicago and it’s been a trip back in time. I was born in the suburbs here but moved when I was 8. I’ve been back only a couple of times, most recently 18 years ago.
So I get in the cab and they’re talking about traffic on the Stevenson Expressway. I remember that from when I was little because the freeway ran pretty close to our house and my dad took it to work. Then I notice that the trees are leafless–the season is at least a month behind where I live in California. We pass the Field Museum, which I haven’t seen for nearly 4 decades, but I recognized it at once. It looks almost exactly like I remembered. And finally I check into my hotel–the same hotel where I stayed on a visit to Chicago almost exactly 20 years ago.