One of the most precious gifts I have received in the last few years is that I am now back in touch with beloved friends of childhood. I appreciate them ever so much, especially with all the turmoil and insecurity in the world today.
I have lived my life like a vagabond or a tumble weed, so I was delighted to be part of the committee to put together our 40th high school class reunion. After many years of moving to new places and being part of new church communities, work places, neighborhoods, etc, I rejoice to be back (at least virtually if not always in person) amongst people who have known me since I was little or a teen. Keeping in touch with old friends by phone letter, e-mail, social media has been wonderful.
Now I again have people in my life to whom I have to explain nothing about where I grew up, who my parents are, and many other pieces of information I share when I get to know people in places that are not my heart home.
I was a city girl, born on the South Side of Chicago. But during the summer of the year I turned eight, we moved to a house on Tower Lakes. A little community surrounding several small lakes, seven miles north of the Village of Barrington and two miles south of Wauconda, we thought we were in paradise. The Village of Barrington, where our church is, and where we attended high school, is forty-five miles northwest of Chicago on what used to be called the Chicago and Northwestern Line. The village is criss-crossed by transportation and in the midst of boundaries.
US Route 59 goes right through the middle of the village north-south axis. Within the boundaries of the village the road is known as Hough Street. The other central axis is County Line Road, called Main Street inside the village's borders.
Certain times of the day, if you were going almost anywhere and had to go through the village you might be stopped at passenger train crossings in three or four different places, and at two or three commercial train intersections. If you were driving anywhere near the Barrington High right after the last bell of the day, you were in trouble if you weren't patient and vigilant.
The gently rolling countryside of the Fox River Valley encompassed our new world. Most rivers either flowed into tributaries of the Mississippi like the DesPlaines, the Illinois, and the Kankakee. Creeks, streams and lakes made up the watershed, too.
For city kids used to the right angled streets and diagonal main thoroughfares of the Chicago urban geometry spokes, my brother, sister and I delighted in traveling on roads based on Algonquin Native American trails through kettle moraine forests and cow paths through hillsides covered with deep prairie grass.
Our house was right on the main lake across from two islands that rose up out of what had been a spring-fed swamp before the overflow was dammed up by an enterprising Armenian man, his family members and friends. When you see Tower Lakes on a map, it looks a bit like an "L" with the base of the "letter" sitting east/west, the vertical part almost completely north/south. Our house was on the northern shore of the east/west part, closer to Highway 59 than to the open fields on the western boundary not far from the Fox River.
Besides the two islands across from our house, Snake Island on the left and Devil's Island on the right, there were four islands on the vertical section. A suspension bridge cuts across the lake just north of the intersection of the east/west part and the north/south section.
Duck Island is right north of the Big Bridge. It is flat with tall pine trees on it. There used to be a little bridge to it, but when we were kids there no longer was. Along the shore of the lake from the road leading to the Big Bridge there is a path that leads to the three islands on the northeast part of the vertical section. Beach Island, Rest Island and Boat Island all have bridges to them, and community gatherings have always taken place on them.
The suspension bridge between Beach Island and Rest Island has only one tower on each island, whereas the Big Bridge has two towers in the middle of the lake and three sections of its span. Below is an aerial view of the main lake from over Rest Island and Beach Island with a view of Duck Island and the Big Bridge. Our house was to the left of the top left corner of the photo, out of sight. The edge of Devil's Island can be seen in that top left corner, too.
It has just occurred to me that I started out talking about people and ended up talking about a place. Of course the two are inexorably linked.
Tower Lakes had a governing body called "The Tower Lakes Improvement Association" in our time. And when we were teens, we formed an organization called "The Tower Lakers." Even before we formed the organization, we would all hang out at the beach together all summer, rake leaves for people who couldn't get out to do that, and generally enjoy each other throughout the year.
We had row boats, canoes and sail boats. Since the lakes were not big enough for motor boats, we enjoyed tranquility and fun. During spring, summer and fall we fished, sailed, had races and water "battles." In the winter we skated, sledded and tobogganed.
Friends from the other lake communities and countryside near us came over. We went to North Barrington Elementary School with kids from Timberlake, Biltmore, Indian Trail, Arrowhead Lane, Kelsey Road and Miller Road, all the way up to Signal Hill Road. These days there are lots and lots more houses and the flows of traffic are different, but we can still find our way. The next town over, Lake Zurich is still recognizable.
Even though there is more traffic, and even a motel on Roberts Road heading towards River Road along the Fox, familiar landmarks can be found.
Wauconda, Wonder Lake, Crystal Lake, Fox Lake, Woodstock and McHenry are still surrounded by farms, though fewer than when we were growing up.
Beyond Lake Zurich is the old drive-in movie theater and Long Grove where you can find antiques and enjoy a day of wandering around, finding bargains and delights, and enjoying good food and drinks. Buffalo Grove and other towns led to the larger suburbs perched on Lake Michigan north of Chicago all the way to the Wisconsin State line.
We dwelt in relative safety and security then. All the parents of our friends knew one another at least slightly and some very well. We had slumber parties, holiday parties, birthday parties and outings. By the time we got to be teens we even had moms and dads who would chaperone us to Beatles' concerts, to the Riverview Ramble, to downtown Chicago when rock bands like Paul Revere and the Raiders and groups from American Bandstand played at the Stock Yards.
The older we became the greater our range of fun and travel extended. As high school seniors, we staged our Ditch Day beginning with breakfast on Zion Beach State Park, maybe, or I'm not sure I remember exactly where. We sat around a camp fire in the early spring cold and watched the sun emerge from the cold, cold deep beautiful lake. And we reflected on how soon we would all be dispersed mostly to various colleges, excited and sad at the same time.
Now we have been re-gathered -- at least most of us. We chat on Facebook and have each others' phone numbers and addresses. Some of us are grandparents, some of us have lost one or more of our parents. As we have gotten back in touch and shared the stories of our lives, we have learned of tragedies and joy. Even when it has been twenty or thirty years, we still recognize voices on the phone.
We see one another again and reconcile the vision of what we looked like then to what we look like now. And laugh. Some of us have had interesting jobs. A few still or again play in rock bands like those who gave us the music of our generation at high school sock-hops and dances.
When we are together we have the joy and security of the certainty that we are, each one of us, personally known in ways that no one we have met since we grew up really knows us.
That's what I appreciate the most.
Below are some links so you can visualize the places of my heart home if you care to do that.
Hope you have a lovely day, Beloved.
Village of Barrington
Village of Tower Lakes
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