The other day I was sitting outside my house, 55 yrs. after the Corner, PG, BA etc. Nice warm day with a wonderful breeze, and I felt a real feeling about the times on the corner. It wasn't just memories but a real feeling taking me back. As I said in previous posts, the Playground [PG] had a big ball field with benches around the outfield. While alot of time was made up playing ball, we also found ourselves sitting on the bench in center field under a tree just talking. Not about the economy or politics, or intellectual issues for sure but about goofy things one of the guys might have said or done. One of the guys might say if there were four or six, "lets play lineball". Line ball was a game of softball that you could play with 4 or 6 and still be meaningful. But if we were just sitting on the bench and talking on the warm day under the tree, so as not to be totally unproductive, we would turn this time into being productive. How? We would use it for planning what we were going to do in the evening when we had unproductive time. This was a win win situation because we turned the unproductive daytime, productive by using it for evening planning so that in the evening we would have something, although meaningless, to do.
When school was in, the schedule changed somewhat inasmuch as we had to be in school and even though our heart and mind was not in it, we had to be there. But at 3.00, we were faced with being unproductive and had to do some planning for the evening so when evening, night, etc. came around we had our plans made. But even though some would say all our plans were basically meaningless, in those days to the guys on the corner we never looked on them like that.
This lasted from about 6th or 7th grade until pretty much I got married.For sure until I graduated high school.
Looking back, unproductive was [is] good, at least for me. Then and now.
About Me
- Jay Norman Davis
- chicago, illinois, United States
- Education was in Chicago, Emmett Grammar school and The Austin High School. Higher education was the corner of Madison and Central, "The Corner" on Chicago's west side. On one corner of "The Corner" was a drug store with a soda fountain where you could get drinks, etc. Outside among other things we pitched pennies and just hung out. On the other side of the street was Emmett Grammar School and the playground {PG}. It had a huge ball field where we spent alot of time. And down the street was the Bowling Alley [BA]., with about 32 alleys and pool and billiard tables. Alot of time was spent up there also. The Corner was a busy place where there were always "Characters" around from young guys to older men. Bookies, Gambling, and just hanging out. This was what we did from around 6th grade on. No drugs, no violence, just fun and sports and hanging out.
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