2022-05_May_0521_TLP_Slow-Scrap_Remember-When_web

Paula Kesselring - Sweet Life, Sweetness, Urban Blight
Kim Jensen - Confection Affection
Lynn Grieveson - The Best China
Forever Joy - the Little Things, Clever Things

Journaling:
Growing up in Chicago in the 1950s and 1960s, it was HOT and HUMID. This was in the days before air-conditioning, or as our friends in Germany called it, artificial air. Depending on the season, Chicago could be windy, snowy, blustery, but you could always count on it being hot in the summer.

Chicago had a decent park system. The closest outdoor pool was in Robert La Follette Park, a little over mile walk for us kids. Sometimes there were groups of us who made the trek, but most often it was just my friend, Cindy and me. We'd walk north on Kostner to Division, then west past Cicero to LeClaire, and then north a couple more blocks to the pool. And maybe sometimes we took our bicycles, but strangely, I only recall our walks.

I don't remember much about the pool, other than it is was large and blue and heavily chlorinated and full of kids and always fun to get wet and cool off.

One of the “highlights” of the hike was walking past Leaf Candy Factory while it was in operation. Leaf Candy (known for producing Good & Plenty, Whoppers, Milk Duds, Jolly Rancher, and Rain Blo Bubblegum, just to name a few) was on the corner of Division and Cicero, in a huge, stately, brown/red brick building with its main entrance at 1155 North Cicero Avenue. You could smell burnt sugar for blocks before you could see the building and the odors were enhanced and made more intense by heat. Imagine walking the hot pavement and then having your nostrils being accosted by the smell that would just about knock you off your feet. That was Leaf Candy. Thankfully it was in an industrial area, bordered by main streets and the traffic of the 1960's with not a lot of residential homes nearby. That stench may be one of the reasons I am, to this day, generally not a fan of hard-candy.