Tuesday, 1/28

I did not grow up in South Marquette. But I was spawned by someone who did.

The Mining Journal had a very nice article  yesterday on the little extravaganza Jack & I did last Thursday, but it contained a factual error that has also popped up in several other TV stories and articles stretching all the way back to the original South Marquette walking tour I did last year--

I am not from South Marquette.

The article mentions that I grew up in South Marquette, which isn't true. I spent the first few years of my life out on the highway where Walmart now is, and then split the rest of my childhood between Norway Avenue, and Fairway Drive. The closest I came to being a resident of South Marquette might be the years I spent at Bothwell Middle School.

But I didn't grow up there.

I actually try to point that fact out when I'm talking about South Marquette. I guess I just don't do a good enough job. Either that, or when people hear me talking about the fact that my dad is from South Marquette they automatically think I am as well, or they're not just paying attention to the words “my dad”. Any one of those would be a good explanation; I'm guessing it's a combination of all of them.

It's kind of funny, too, because when I was young and my dad took me to visit some of his relatives who still lived in South Marquette I always thought it was an exotic place. There were new, interesting families and lots of hills and a softball field stuck smack dab right in the middle of it all. I was fascinated by the place, which is probably why I enjoy telling the stories so much.

Another thing that may lead to my interest in it is that the old Hogan family homestead was torn down before I was born. That means whatever tenuous link that I may have had with the neighborhood was never around for me to exploit. I don't even know what the house in which my dad grew up looked like. But I do know where it was (the top of Jackson Street hill), and I kind of use that as an anchor when talking about the people and the places of the surrounding streets.

So like I said, I'm not from South Marquette. I do, however, think it's kind of cool that people assume I'm from there. It must just (literally) be in my DNA.

(jim@wmqt.com)