My roots! I love this. My grandma went to grade school at St. Barbara's in Bridgeport. My mom & I used to go to that old 'hood to buy hot dogs & tamales from a man on the corner with a cart...they probably don't do that anymore, do they?
And bubbly creek...yuck, yuck & yuck.
Thank you for posting these!

I grew up between the city and the country. The suburbs is where I moved to when I got older. It is a weird country here. The verdict is still out on what I think about it.

Caroline Marie, you would be stunned by what's going on in your old neighborhood --- right on the shores of Bubbly Creek is one of those developments with million doller homes "Right on the Water!!!!:-O.

And apparently, the developer of these homes not only was allowed to build next to the notorious effluvium filled bubbly creek, but there are structrual problems, too. Heard about this and saw the development (which APPEARS to be quite swanky) on a recent tour of Bridgeport. There seems to be a lot of other developments that stalled, too, after the recession hit. Very, very interesting.

And on the day we were walking around, there was a fellow outside the Benton settlement house selling snowballs and drinks from a cart. It was a strange day - streets were empty because both the White Soxs and the Bears were playing in Chicago, almost at the same time, so it was very quiet outside except for the occasional burst of yelling from the houses whenever there was a touchdown or a base hit........Had a great time! Took a ton of pictures..Thanks for visiting....

Loved this! I'm only a quick bike ride from Bridgeport and love to ride through on a weekend afternoon. I still have been meaning to make it back to that giant park with that huge sledding hill. I was there over the winter, but have neglected to take a long walk while the weather is still alright.

Thanks for sharing the pictures from your tour. I know many of those spots, but not all of them. The old drug store on Archer and flower shop on Halsted are two of my faves in that area.

That pricey development along Bubbly Creek really makes me laugh. Even though Bubbly Creek isn't nearly as stinky as it used to be, that's not exactly a scenic part of the river. The fact that they found enough suckers to pay those steep price tags for structurally unsound wannabe-McMansions next to Bubbly Creek is priceless. There's always someone to prove P.T. Barnum's favorite saying.

Did you check out Stearns Quarry Park while you were in the neighborhood? It's become one of my favorite Chicago parks. It was quite an ambitious project for the park district, which has created an audio tour for it.

I'm definitely going to add Stearns Quarry Park to my list of places to go. It was mentioned by the Forgotton Chicago guys but our walk didn't get to that area. It sounds like a place where one would want to spend a lot of time.... Thanks for sharing and visiting Bikepsychobabble!

Kateasley,
So glad you liked them! Thanks for visiting and commenting!

This is fascinating. Your pictures tell me about a place I only knew from my childhood memories, a neighborhood I don't know, but the feelings elicited are the same.