We’re off to the Subaru dealership at the crack of dawn, the dash lights are all off again and it turns out all the car needs is its normal 3000 mile service – but the synthetic oil it requires makes it more expensive than “normal”! It seems the stalling and the business with the dash lights was probably due to some radio-frequency interference which triggered the “lock-down” signal – this would normally happen if the wrong key was used or if there was some other evidence of mischief. It’s a bit disconcerting to know that some random radio signal could shut our car down completely – we were lucky that it changed its mind.
That afternoon we drive up to the Andersonville neighborhood on the North Side to visit Carol & Jessie, and meet Tom the Lab mix, a very long black dog who’s the newest addition to the household.
Jess, Carol & Tom on the porch of their gorgeous Northside home.
Carol Anshaw and Jan have been friends since their time together at Michigan State, they can’t be in each other’s company without laughing (there seems to be a pattern here). There are a lot of shops and restaurants in their neighborhood – almost like a real city 😉 -and they take us to a yummy dinner nearby. Carol’s an author (her fourth novel is being published), a teacher, and more recently has been developing her considerable talents as an artist.
Tom says Hi!
The next morning we say goodbye to Carol & Jess and head back to Evergreen Park, in time to attend Brianna’s swim lesson at the high school. Right across the street from the high school is the house in which Jan spent a large part of her childhood, she goes over and knocks on the door , it’s answered by the present owner Mike Brennan who invites us in and shows us around.
Jan at 10000 South Sawyer.
Jan’s dad built this house in 1947 with her grandfather, who was a journeyman bricklayer, and various uncles. She lived there until 1959 when they built and moved into another house in EP a couple of miles away. Naturally this house was right next to the high school that Jan would begin attending in 1960, and the new house was right near the junior high she attended until that year. Jan’s shoe leather was obviously not a high priority at the time.