B is for Batavia
I think most of us consider Batavia to be the home of our childhoods. Jolie wrote a song about it, and us. Aimee's already referred to the Alphabet People in this blog. When thinking about an idyllic place to raise children someday, this is what I compare everything to. Batavia stands for a wonderful place of innocence, wonder and personal freedom.
Here are my memories:
The huge (to us) home with plenty of places to run and play in the big yard with the fruit trees. The trampoline where we used to jump in our pink elephant or green palm tree swimming suits while we were sprayed with the garden hose. Mom talking in her telephone voice on the dining room/old kitchen wall phone while we bugged her for attention. The holiday parties with cornflake marshmallow wreath treats. The blackberry bushes where we picked berries for our morning cereal. The chicken-loaf-with-cheetos sandwiches at the kitchen table for weekend lunches. Roller skating at Funway. The horses across the street and the riding lessons around the corner in the barn that was such a mix of smells. Stopping the car to moo at the cows until they all came over to look at the crazy people. Fred and his lady-dogfriend across the street; their illigitimate puppy together. The crying couch. Oberweis ice cream sundaes with the coveted pirouline cookie. The talking tree at that weird department store. The Firehouse pizza place, where you could eat in the loft. The frozen Fox River, and all the ice skaters. Jolie's basement domain with dance lessons, roller skating to Grease albums, and regular schoolings for Meg and I. Throwing glass at the Nelson Lake Road sign with Meggie before she cut herself and got her first stitches. Building snow forts. The bug, the green oldsmobile. Mom blowing up the microwave with Kentucky Fried Chicken corn on the cob. Fire engines. The warm fireplace and the cold stone mantel in front of it. Moon boots. Smelly pencils. Scratch-and-sniff. Birthdays with Zoom who lives on the Moon. Baths in the kitchen sink. Reading books in the climbing trees. Corn field hide-and-seek. Honey from the Fairbornes. Birthday parties at McDonalds (oh it seemed so very unique then!). Waiting for Dad to come home after dark.
It all made sense. Then we were carted off to the suburbs of Chicago, where nothing seemed to make sense. I know that's when I started to feel chaos for the first time. And it makes me sad to think we couldn't have stayed in Batavia to continue our childhoods. It also makes me sad to go back to Batavia and see how it's changed. It's a mall town now, like everywhere else. It's why I look outside of the US for a place with soul. If Batavia can change, so will everywhere else.
What are your memories? Give 'em here. I might even add more. It's our dern blog.
posted by X Bethlehem @ 1:58 PM
5 Comments:
That's right! It IS our dern blog! We can post when we wanna!
Those are great memories. When did the glass throwing/stitches thang happen?
Lots of memories. i remember waiting in the living room for, i think, both Meg and Beth to be brought back from the hospital after they were born. Meg coming home from school and putting on her fancy party dress every day. Playing ghost in the graveyard. Prank calling 867-5309, and other numbers (pre-caller id good ol days). You and Meg and yer friends in the little pool on the porch all summer. Waking up to go jogging and have granola with dad before he went to the train to work. Getting silently car sick in the back of the car garage saleing with mom early weekend mornings (start! stop! start! stop! start! stop!). Walking through the houses that were being built with Uncle Tony. Sledding behind some car down Nelson Lake Road. Having to go to the Jeorge's when Beth flipped over the grocery cart, and was taken to the emergency room. Riding grocery carts. Lots of roller skating in the basement and at Funway. Some bday parties at Happy Joe's, and Big Bird coming to our hose for others. Sliding down the stairs in sleeping bags. Warming up next to the fireplace in winter, then running up the stairs, down the hall, and jumping from as far as possible into bed (i was sure somethingwas under there), the weird stalagtite ceilings in the foyer, hitting tennis balls against the garage door, our front door that never locked that we would jiggle open, (and maybe relatedly) when our house was broken into and they dumped a tray of chocolate mousse onto the kitchen floor, Aunt Helen and Uncle Tony bringing donuts, babysitting for Beth and Meg at the Joynt's. Picking pumpkins in kindergarten. School Fun Fairs and cake walks. Looong church services with scary priests. Wags. Making "Yan Can Cook Fortune Cookie" with sissies. Singing that "Keep yer mind on the driving, keep yer hands on the wheel, keep your sleepy sleepy eyes on the road ahead. We're having fun, sittin in the backseet, kissin and a huggin with fred" song while in the green Nova. Bringing milk in from the milk box. Building tunnels with Jolie through the driveway's snow-blown hills of the blizzard of '79. That super-tall basketball hoop at the end of our gravel driveway. Sitting on the basement stairs so sad cause we couldn't skate every time it flooded. Lots more!
Oh, and i dunno if you wanna keep batavia idyllic and rare. Not to question your framing of things, but there were a lot of things that didn't make sense there. And, not sure about your friends at the time, but many of the kids i knew growing up in Batavia got into bad drugs and bad scenes shortly after we moved. And then there's the ones that blew themselves up trying to make fireworks. i think that a big part of the "making sense" you felt in Batavia had to do with yer age and situation, Bet.
You were very young when we lived there, and yer life pretty much focused around going to a school you had gone to your entire life with people you knew just as long, and playing piano. And hanging out with meg. Life is just simpler when yer young. When we moved, you were, what? In fifth grade? You started at a school where you knew no one, but everyone had been together for years. You stopped piano around then too, right? So a lot of things went up in the air in general.
i mean, i think Batavia was a good place in a lot of ways. Very safe. Very wholesome. But i don't think it woulda stayed so if we had stayed. So, we got mostly the good part. i think we were lucky! What you think?
i definitely agree that we were lucky. and we moved right before 4th grade for me. so I was, yes, young. and not yet into cocaine. but i didn't stop piano until end of 8th grade and that was a lot because of the long, long rides to Mrs. Sherter with Dad while he talked and talked. and sometimes cried. Of course there was more to it, but that was the worst.
the throwing glass at the wooden post with meg was probably in our last year there. i'd had my stitches and knew one of us would end up with them again while we were throwing the glass. but it was just so fun! Until Meggie cut her finger.
i remember the Fred song! and of course collecting nails with Uncle Tony in the new houses after gorging on the dunkin' donuts they always brought around in their sky blue cadillac. and i got green lollipops when i fell off the grocery cart. Happy Joes! Meg loved Happy Joes. And their wonderful indoor merri-go-round. Meg in her party dress, finally an occasion.
You were very little when you were picking pumpkins. That was fun, though. The barn always had the bowls you could reach up and put your hand in to feel the eyeballs or brains. good times.
I believed until very recently that the house wasn't broken into, but it was only the shadow of Fred we saw in the window. I do remember when we came up to the driveway that night and Mom saw something and haltedly tried to explain why she wasn't pulling in. What did the people steal? Maybe the tv? Did we get it back?
I was really young when you built the snow tunnels, but remember them really well. They were like magic.
B is for boys too and not Batavia. That part of life was great, so easy, I remember the plum trees, and the pear trees, and the shed that we never ventured into. Why didn't anyone but dad go in there? I remember Patches, my Guniea Pig, and watching him out on the lawn, and when he got out of his pen and he was a fast little bugger and I cried for momma to help me catch him! The glass bottle I remember and I do think I remember Beth running in the house with me and me getting shuttled off to the hospital and getting those stiches. My cut seemed so big back then, but as I look at my finger I still can see a line from where the stiches were if I bend my pointer finger back and when I picked up that broken bottle and only picked it up because we had thrown all the whole bottles already at that sign. And throwing it, and then feeling the cut...then blood! But it never really hurt until they disinfected it at the hospital.
Yep. I guess I remember taking baths in the sink. Playing hopscotch on the kitchen floor. Watching my friends walk up to our door the year of some huge snow storm on my birthday. Getting in a fight with Beth outside Boddie Ardelenes and dad saying I was in trouble. We did pester each other. Standing on the rocking chair arms and rocking back and forth. Balancing on the top of the couch and walking across till I fell. Jumping on the beds when no one was watching me. Painting my entire face with Barbie lipstick so I could be a clown, but hen realizing my face was stained pink and I had to go to school like that. 2nd grade. then 3rd grade in a catholic school.
Blech.
http://www.city-data.com/city/Batavia-Illinois.html
It's all about the B-town.
Meg, I'm always yelling at you. But start a B is for Boys subject and we'll all comment on that, too. We'll get the hang of it, eventually. And I'll stop griping.
I remember sitting at the breakfast bar that was almost ready to break. You couldn't lean on it too hard. I also remember the wonderful hills, Uncle Tony taking us on long walks to explore the places that were just next door. Like we used to do in Joliet when we saw the big boat. I remember my favorite grammer school teacher coming to my birthday party when I was in 2nd grade, Miss Eling. I remember those crazy dance lessons with good Beth and havoc Meg. I remember Aimee never taking off her football jersey. I remember coming down in my first coat of green eye shadow, and you guys all telling me that I looked like a witch. I was so happy and excited, and then I ran upstairs to take it off. It was good learning. I overdid the makeup for years, eye makeup. I loved Batavia. I thought it was an awesome place to grow up.
I remember swearing that if I made cheerleading squad that I wouldn't pick my nose anymore.
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