I was born in Chicago, but when the 4th of us kids was due, my parents were concerned they might not be able to feed us all, so they decided to buy a farm in 1948, south of Chicago, in Richton Park, Illinois. Dad still had his good job as a steel roller. I personally think they were always adventuresome and they welcomed this "ridiculous" idea. That is the farmhouse, my room was upstairs behind the right window, the huge barn was behind the foliage, to the right was a nice orchard with apples, pears, peaches and cherry trees. A glimpse of the corn crib can be seen in the middle of the photo. There was a huge, beautifully built granary out of sight. The light "speck" in the driveway was probably Queenie, or some farm dog. This 1950 ish photo was our home, filled with incredibly valuable memories, until about 1960, when we 4 kids were grown and each had our own lives in other locations, and our parents sold the farm and built a lovely modern home nearby. In the foreground was a field that sometimes flooded if the creek got jammed, where the pigs got out, and I saw my Mother in her homeade feedsack housedress, physically tackle one of those runway pigs!!! The main road (Sauk Trail) was a poorly maintained 2 lanes -- today it is a 4 lane highway with with stop lights. There is nothing left of that original place - it is all under asphalt, and apartment buildings except for one open space I've seen on Google, that remains a green field where I exercised my horses.
Us 4 kids all realize we were incredibly lucky to have spent our growing years living this fortunate life.
