A bit of my last post reminded me of a small rant I've been wanting to do.
Would people please stop offering up my old hometown as the epitome of the materialistic bourgois class? Yes, a lot of people in Naperville were wealthy. Yes, it was an excellent school district because of all those property taxes. Yes, it was predominantly WASPy -- or at least the white part, probably a whole lot more Polish Catholics than Protestants, but WPC isn't as handy an acronym. But please, Oprah, show the rest of the town besides the south side and it's monstrous homes! And there are other wealthy burbs in Chicagoland you could focus on! Geez, just go to Winnetka.
We lived in the older part of Naperville. I went to one of the oldest elementary schools and the original junior high, my sister went to the original high school. Most of my friends lived in modest split-levels. I rode my bike to the old downtown, went to an independant music store, bookstore, ice cream shop, clothes store, etc. Where we lived had a remarkable sense of being a town, not just a burb. Granted, we were on the very edge of that part, but my life centered on old Naperville and district 203, not the sprawl of 204. (Not that that means anything to anyone other than my sister and Angela)
Sadly, I probably wouldn't even recognize downtown anymore. I hear there's a GAP, a Starbucks, etc. So maybe the town I knew is gone. And I'm sure Amanda has a different take since she was there as a teenager more than I was. But still, back off, Oprah!
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Welcome to my odditorium, a collection of curiosities made up of snippets about my life and occasional machinations on deeper subjects.
2 comments:
Okay, I did write a comment on Friday, but it got lost and I ran out of time. I have been back to Naperville since we left. The last time was in 1998, so not very recently, but even then it seemed like a different place. The old fire station, which was still fulfilling its original purpose when we lived there, was now a chi-chi Cuban restaurant. The old cafe was a Starbucks. It was clear the whole place was going way upscale. It was a nice suburb when we lived there, but with pretty much an American average kind of heart. If you wanted rich suburb then you would have to go to the Northern suburbs immortalised by John Hughes in Ferris Bueller and Breakfast Club. Naperville wasn't that place, but it may be like that now.
Oh yeah, the above comment it me, Amanda.
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