By John W. Fountain
Chicago's skyline (John W. Fountain, PHOTO)
I'm so Chicago that I remember a time when we were a community. A time before crack cocaine, before drive-by shootings. A time when there was no news of little girls being killed by stray bullets at a slumber party. I remember a time before "Chiraq."
I'm so Chicago, I recall a time when everyone went to church on Sunday mornings and the smell of dinner wafted through the neighborhood. A time when churches were vital and connected to our community. And mega churches and prosperity doctrine were an obscenity to us all.
I remember the glow of the light from tent revivals and the call to all to simply "come." I remember when "Mister" And "Missus" were every adult's first name and young people respected their elders.
I remember when we were more neighborly, less hateful and jealous of one another and understood the value of education. A time when teachers carried themselves like they were ambassadors of precious hope and promise. A time when parent-teacher conferences were crowded. And earning bad grades was a disgrace.
I'm so Chicago I remember the time when it was shameful to have a child out of wedlock and some pregnant girls were sent Down South. A time before sagging. When young men wore belts, were taught to open doors and what it meant to be a real man. A time before twerking, before half-naked selfies accentuated by duck lips.
I'm so Chicago I remember when we had so much less as a people than we do today. But we had so much more.
A time when rap music wasn't curse music. A time when brothers called sisters by their names instead of female dogs. A time when, even when "Daddy" went MIA, grandmothers and grandfathers, aunts and uncles and neighbors stood united as a village to help raise a child.
I remember when we lived closer to the land. I remember the Watermelon Man, rounding the corner with his sweet serenade, advertising fresh fruits and vegetables. The time when cornbread, collard greens and pot liquor was the mainstay of our diet rather than fat and greasy, fast and fabricated foods that now kill us, consign us to medications.
I'm so Chicago I remember when diabetes was called "the sugar" and it was less frequent in our community. A time when the "health club" was our ability to be active and outdoors in our neighborhoods because they were safer and cleaner rather than deadly and meaner.
I remember little girls--and boys--jumping Double Dutch, the rope slapping the sidewalk and their sweet a cappella. I remember hopscotch. I remember playing tag football and softball in the vacant lot, Johnny-Come-Across and racing down the middle of the street, slap-boxing, chewing bubble gum and sipping icy Kool-Aid cups under a sweltering summer sun. I remember all the times as boys that we scrapped, argued or fought but no one got shot.
I remember that Dr. King once lived in my West Side neighborhood. That the King once also dreamed here that this land someday would be a better land, a Promised Land rather than a tarnished land symbolic of a broken plan and the deferred dream of a murdered man.
I remember because I believe that if we are ever to have any hope of reclaiming what has been lost, we must first remember what is possible. That it wasn't always this way. And that we still possess the power and ability to make all of Chicago so much better, so much more.
John Fountain and sister Gloria as children.