My mom was the only white girl growing up in an all black high school. She lived on North Wells very close to the housing project in the picture. One day as a young lady heard loud noises outside and looked out the window and to her horror she saw flames coming from the West Side of the city. She said all she could do was hide in a corner and cry.

It was just about a week before Easter. Usually on Easter our family eats baked mostacholli but that Easter there wasn't a store open in the neighborhood. Every thing was closed. They had no TV back then so when my mom tuned into the radio she found out to her horror that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated. She stayed inside for the next few days scared for her life.

This is what the West side looked like right after the riots had finished. Even though my grandma did move a few blocks north they never did leave the neighborhood and she stayed at that same high school and graduated the only white girl in her class. I'm really proud of my mom for her courage and heart to stay there.

I grew up at my grandma's house.
They lived in a neighborhood called "Old Town." It was kind of the closest thing Chicago had to Haight-Ashbury. At the time it was a ghetto but even as a little kid I remember dancing and great music.

Later I remember moving to the suburbs to places I couldn't pronounce or spell like Howard Heights and Schaumburg. Although we lived among suburban kids and even walked on the same golf courses we never fit in. We didn't speak the same as the other kids. We definitely didn't act the same. Sometimes we didn't invite friends over because we were embarrassed by the way my parents would speak. They didn't follow much of the grammar rules and pretty much had a strong city accent.

After living thirty years in the suburbs a lot of things changed, but a few things stay the same.

I still hear that ghetto accent when my mom says,

"I wasn't even axing you!"

And back to the title statement:

"I just wanted to axe you a question."

Here goes: "Can you take the girl out of the city?"

The answer is, "You can take the girl out of the city, but you can't take the city out of the girl."

When I think about one of the most beautiful women in the world I remember her heart, but I also remember the city she came from:

My mom, my brother and I after we moved out to the suburbs.

Other picture sources

Picture 1,2 Chicago Tribune

Picture 3 Wikipedia

Picture 4 Outside Perception

This was something I wanted to share about my mom. She put up with my so much. It was only many years later I realized I much she really went through. True comedy is deep suffering to the point of understanding. Then we can laugh.

peace

@mineopoly

I nominate @moderndayhippie and @hitmanchoi