Thomas Wolfe believed you can't go home again. But I just did.
Quite unexpectedly a book arrived the other day, a
thoughtful gift from a sister-in-law. Its
title: Goodbye Elgin High by
Mike Bailey who authored a fairly parallel story of us coming of age in a city
undergoing dramatic change (except for a minor two year difference in our
academic schedules and the fact I attended the other high school). Reading it immediately transported me back to
my teen years in this median size northern Illinois city that we called home.
I was reminded that during my high school days the St. Louis
Gateway Arch was completed; the news was all about the Soviets first
"spacewalk" and then their first soft lunar landing; the Crocker Theater was showing The Sound of Music; WLS radio was
playing I Got You Babe, Help, and Catch Us If You Can; the
popular TV shows were Bonanza and Andy Griffith. Tang, Cool Whip, Pampers, Pop Tarts and
freeze-dried coffee appeared on the shelves of our 35+ neighborhood grocery stores. Modern Dairy still delivered milk to the insulated
aluminum cube sitting by our back door.
There was a live lion at Lords Park. And gas was 30-35 cents/gallon at
more than 55 service stations in town.
As far as coming of age memories go, the author has a lot
more of them than I do. My most vivid
high school memory was me nearly scaring Dad to death as he was teaching me how
to drive (might have been his most memorable too). But before the State of Illinois would grant
me a driver license, they made me get glasses-- their testing discovered that sometime
during my tender years I had become near-sighted. Once I got my new glasses I really began to
discover the world around me. Coupled
with the newfound independence my license and an old beat up '47 Cadillac provided,
my life took on new dimensions. I
became a better student, did well enough on my ACTs, graduated in 1966 and went
off to college. About the same time as
my life seemed to be ascending, Elgin's started descending - both economically
and in my consciousness.
In 1952, Elgin was selected as an All-American City and
rightfully so. It was a great place to
grow up. But starting in the
mid-sixties, circumstances conspired against it. The tipping point was the
closure of its most prominent and famous namesake employer: The Elgin National
Watch Company. It had been an economic
engine providing a substantial foundation of local employment for thousands of skilled,
above average paid folks who had, in turn, attracted other manufacturing and
retail businesses for more than a century.
Some say it was the victim of cheap foreign competition, but the
tremendously successful marketing campaign (spearheaded by John Cameron Swayze) relentlessly promoted the rugged (and cheap) virtues of the Timex brand watch also took its toll. In retrospect, the Timex slogan
“It
takes a licking and keeps on ticking” could have been adopted as an Elgin
city slogan after the demise of its own watch company.
That started the slow decline in the community. Other local businesses withered, died or
moved. The demographics shifted toward
lower income families. More and more
Spanish speaking students appeared in the schools struggling with the English
curriculums which negatively affected overall education performance. Increasing numbers of families left for other
places with better performing schools.
This ripple effect continued for the next three decades (some would say
it hasn't ended yet).
Elgin most certainly would have died if it had not been
successful in attracting a casino. The
city coffers now receive $1 for each gambler and 5% of their losses. City government now has more funds than ever. While providing for infrastructure
improvements, they don’t have that many more better paying jobs or much better educational
performance. I guess you could say they gambled
their future . . . and at least won an All-American City designation a second
time (in 2002). I hope the good fortune lasts.
But I’m glad to have lived there when I did; As I’m fond of
saying, it was a good time and place to be from. Thank you, Judy, for providing the vehicle
for this trip in time.
