BY ANDREW MORKES, FOUNDER AND AUTHOR OF “NATURE IN CHICAGOLAND” BLOG
I’m taking a break from nature in Chicagoland today to share some memories of growing up next to the Metra Rock Island railroad tracks in Beverly Hills/Morgan Park on the far South Side of Chicago in the 1980s. More nature stories coming soon!
Some kids grow up next to parks or forests or baseball stadiums. I grew up next to the Metra railroad tracks on 107th Street in the Beverly/Morgan Park neighborhood in Chicago, and I wouldn’t trade anything for that experience. I loved the constant coming and going of trains and the rush of commuters.
Today, parking lots and pay kiosks line the tracks on each side, but in the early 1980s, a wild urban “forest” grew alongside the oxidized red rails. Trees, vines, flowers, snakes, and frogs flourished in this untouched area. You could walk almost completely hidden from 99th Street to 111th Street via narrow trails that weaved through the green expanse—the trail only broken by the occasional street and train crossings. It was a wonderland for us kids, and we played all days in the “woods,” and often on the tracks themselves. We’d play military games and “golf” with sticks and crushed cans. Sometimes, kids would put pop cans or small rocks on the tracks to see what would happen when a train came by. There always seemed to be a new kid in the neighborhood who would brag about derailing a massive commuter train by piling a stack of fist-sized gray cinder rocks on the metal rails. As “kids of the tracks,” we never took these claims seriously.
We also loved crushing pennies or other coins on the tracks. When we heard the whistle of a train a stop or two away, we’d carefully place our pennies on the tracks, move back to a safe location, and wait for the train to roar into the station. After the train pulled out of the station and the commuters left the platform, we’d rush to the tracks to look for our still-warm, flattened coins. Sometimes the copper was blank but, at other times, we could still see a shadow image of Abraham Lincoln or the Lincoln Memorial on the flip side. Some of us were lucky and found our coins in the cinder rock that covered the ground below the rails. Others fell deep into cracks, and the remaining kids would argue about where their coin might have landed or argue over the last unclaimed penny that could be snatched up. We laid pennies on the track repeatedly in anticipation of another passing train, and the copper coins became as thin as a slip of paper after 10 or so trains passed through.
We didn’t just play along the tracks and woods; we also communicated with the train workers. Sometimes we’d wave to the conductors and engineers. Or we’d do the universal whistle gesture (like you do when you see a semi on the highway) and, once in a while, the engineer would blow the horn, and you’d almost jump out of your skin because it was so loud. And sometimes we’d run along with the train as it pulled into the station, trying to catch up with the locomotive at the front of the train.
We’d jump in the air, wave our hands, and yell “WATER!,” and, sometimes, the window high up in the cab would slide open and a hand would reach out and drop a tiny silver milk jug of water (like the kind you would get in school) down to us. We reacted like someone had just dropped a million dollars. The water was so cold, and I still remember how good it tasted on a hot, humid summer day.
One day a train roared into the station, and my crazy friend Billy Denison and I sprinted along the tracks toward the engine. Billy was especially crazy that day and jumped and gestured wildly screaming for water, getting madder and starting to swear as no water fell from above. Soon, the window in the engine slid open and instead of a milk carton, the engineer dumped a big bucket of water on Billy, who went crazy—jumping around like a cat who’d fallen into a bathtub. The engineer just laughed and started the train on its way.
Copyright (text/photos) Andrew Morkes
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Looking for some other great nature destinations in Chicagoland? If so, check out my book, Nature in Chicagoland: More Than 120 Fantastic Nature Destinations That You Must Visit. It features amazing destinations in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Click on the title to learn more. The book has 306 pages and 210+ photos and is only $19.99.
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ABOUT ANDREW MORKES
I’ve been a professional wrestler of words for more than 30 years. I’m the founder of College & Career Press (2002); the author and publisher of “The Morkes Report: College and Career Planning Trends” blog; and the author and publisher of Hot Health Care Careers: 30 Occupations With Fast Growth and Many New Job Openings; Nontraditional Careers for Women and Men: More Than 30 Great Jobs for Women and Men With Apprenticeships Through PhDs; They Teach That in College!?: A Resource Guide to More Than 100 Interesting College Majors, which was selected as one of the best books of the year by the library journal Voice of Youth Advocates; and other titles. They Teach That in College!? provides more information on environmental- and sustainability-related majors such as Ecotourism, Range Management, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Built Environment, Sustainability Studies, and Sustainable Agriculture/Organic Farming. I also served as a member of the parent advisory board at my son’s school for five years.
My poetry has appeared in Cadence, Wisconsin Review, Poetry Motel, Strong Coffee, and Mid-America Review.
In addition to these publications, I’ve written more than 70 teen and young adult-oriented books about college planning and careers for other publishing and media companies including Infobase (such as the venerable Encyclopedia of Careers & Vocational Guidance, the Vault Career Guide to Accounting, The Vault Guide for High School Juniors and Seniors, and many volumes in the Careers in Focus, Discovering Careers, What Can I Do Now?!, and Career Skills Library series), Lerner Publishing, and Mason Crest (including Detecting Misinformation on Social Media, Detoxing from Video Games, The After Life, and Sports and STEAM: Arts).
Here’s a list of the environmental-focused titles that I’ve written:
Nature in Chicagoland: More Than 120 Fantastic Nature Destinations That You Must Visit
Wind Turbine Technicians (Great Careers Without a Bachelor’s Degree series)
Environmental Scientists (Cool Careers in Science series)
Renewable Energy Careers (Cool Careers in Science series)
Environment (Getting Started series)
Solar Power Technicians (Careers in Infrastructure series)