PART II - 136th. Street Chicago

 CHILDHOOD HOME

This is the house where I grew up on the far southside of Chicago.  It was home to the four of  us: Dad, Mom, Donna (sister) and me.  It was probably built in the first quarter of the twentieth century and was not unlike most of the homes on "the block".  It was a 100% working class neighborhood from which many worked at the Acme Steel Company in Riverdale.

The main part of the house, from front to back contained a living room, dining room and kitchen - with one bedroom off of the living room and the other off of the dining room.  The smaller "house" was Dad and Mom's bedroom. The little attached "shanty" in the foreground was entrance to the basement.  The siding was asbestos - which Dad always commented was fireproof.  Little was known about the dangers of asbestos back then.  

This picture was taken sometime in the mid-1950's. 

I lived in this house full time from around 1946 or so until graduating from high school in 1962.  During college and the year before I got married, I lived there "part time" from 1962 to 1967.

The ethnic composition of the neighborhood was all working class white people.  

PART I - My White Privilege

White privilege !  Who me?  Nonsense.   I was born and raised on the far southside of Chicago - the son of a steelworker who never finished his sophomore year of high school;  brought up with a set of working-class, Christian values.  The phrases "Keep your nose clean!" or "Straighten out and fly right!" were common during my upbringing.  In so many respects I, along with others of my demographic, were naive and therefore accepted the norms of of what decades later have been identified as "white privilege".   But up until the past few years, I have come to know that I have always been a member of that group.  I now  accept that as fact.  

This blog - or more aptly a diary - will chronicle various life events that were examples of white privilege but were never understood as such until recently.

Whether someone reads this or not is less important to me than the positive effects it will have on me by expressing my awakenings.