The El in Chicago’s Loop © 2008 Bo Mackison

We took a trip down memory lane on Sunday, drove down to Chicago, and did the “tourist” bit – but from the view as students when we lived here 30+ years ago. We traipsed through the halls of the law school on Northwestern’s downtown campus, ate at Gino’s East, sampling the “authentic” Chicago-style pizza–the same pizza recipe, I swear, we ate several times a week as students in the mid 70’s. Then we walked around the downtown loop area, and I caught a snap of the “el” – the elevated trains that cruise above ground and also dip under Chicago on underground tracks.

Funny though, how I don’t remember ever differentiating between the two. I caught the “el” whether I had to climb up steps and wait on a windy platform or trudge deep within the bowels of Chicago and take what people from different cities would call the subway. I could get anywhere on public transportation when I was in my twenties – and did. I routinely visited hospitals and clinics for internships throughout the entire Chicago area and a few of the suburbs, too. Sometimes my travel would require two trains and two busses, and a two hour commute each way. I’m glad I don’t have to travel to such extremes now to get where I need to go.

Hey, and I sure don’t remember the trains being decorated in pink paint! iPod? What’s an iPod?