Bill Granger`s story, ”The South Side” (Nov. 10) was a wonderfully evocative piece, as were Bob Fila`s photographs.
I feel Mr. Granger evoked the spirit of this wonderful area, which you chose to characterize, by your subtitle, ”Mirror of Chicago`s Past and Keeper of Its Soul.” The fact that Granger chose to address the good, the bad and the ugly of the South Side is a credit to his journalistic fiber.
Should this letter be published, I will probably be tarred and feathered by my Hyde Park neighbors and friends, as the attitude down here is best characterized as ”Shush! Don`t let anyone know about our little corner of the South Side or they (the Northies) may want to move here.”
Thank you, Bill. You`ve blown the cover off one of the great enigmas of this wonderful city for others to see.
TIM HODGEN, Chicago
The Museum of Science and Industry is housed in what was the Palace of Fine Arts during the 1893 Columbian Exposition. It was never known as the Transportation Building, as Bill Granger asserts in ”The South Side.”
The 1893 fair had a Transportation Building, which was designed by Louis Sullivan, but it had no connection in appearance or function with the structure that now houses the museum.
DON FIORE, Addison
Congratulations and bravo to Bill Granger for his fascinating and long-overdue tribute to the South Side and its people! We residents of the South Side are rightfully proud of our part of town and painfully aware of the sometimes unfavorable reputation it has had to deal with.
SUSAN L. NIGRO, Chicago
It is unfortunate that Bill Granger would dismiss in one phrase the 100-year-old Illinois Institute of Technology. People from all over the world come to see the Mies van der Rohe buildings that he calls ”arid,
aesthetically boring and depressing.”
In fact, architectural historians call Mies the 20th Century`s most influential architect, and the American Institute of Architects once termed the campus one of the 200 most significant architectural works in the country. LEWIS COLLENS, PRESIDENT, ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, Chicago
”Ta-da-ring-back-back-back-back-log!” That was the sound our gate made when we pushed it as we ran through our gangway on the South Side.
And ”Trudy Ellie” was not the name of a girl but where you walked when you went ”through the alley.”
Thanks for the heartwarming article, Bill.
MARGE BURR, St. Charles
”The South Side” sent me into nostalgia shock. My memories of the neighborhoods I grew up in are rich and sweet. Shopping in the Kresge`s at 79th and Halsted, walking in Beverly on snowy nights, Calumet High School football games and dances, being the only Swedish Lutheran on a block of Irish Catholics-these were just the first in a flood of memories that overwhelmed me.
I miss the South Side that I knew, loved and that still lives in me. Thanks, Bill Granger, for bringing it all back.
ALICE SCHMATZ RANDLETT, Stevens Point, Wis.
As a South Sider of 50-plus years-I was born in a Chicago brick bungalow in the Back O` the Yards neighborhood-I can verify both the religiosity and racism of the residents of the South Side communities.
My wife and I raised our son in three racially diverse neighborhoods-South Commons, at 29th and Michigan; Prairie Shores, next to Michael Reese Hospital; and now in Dearborn Park. Chicago`s soul exists in each of those communities. I`ve experienced it!
RONALD S. WOS, Chicago
