111th & Kedzie

Plans are underway to develop the intersection of 111th Street and Kedzie Avenue--the heart of the Mount Greenwood neighborhood where Dot, my father and me lived from the early 1950s until 1965. I remember summer mornings when my mother would take me by the hand to go grocery shopping at the A&P, which was right on the 111th/Kedzie corner. There was a Woolworth's, too, with a lunch counter and parakeets for sale. Not quite as bustling a crossroads as my mom's old haunts on 63rd & Halsted, but still pretty busy. I drove by recently and although business-wise, it's not nearly as depressed as other parts of town, the area around the intersection needs a shot in the arm like the one they're proposing.