Showing posts with label Bronzeville. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bronzeville. Show all posts

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Leo HS Morning 2/11/2014 -I Ride With Pride and Clyde By My Side!


 I am blessed with a great life and the opportunity to work for Leo High School.  I get to Leo at about 4:45 most days and start the boilers, do some paper work and get one of the vans ready to pick up between seven and nine guys participating in early morning activities. My crew is usually Cyde, Chris, TJ, Mick, Joe, Latrell, Caleb, Gaylon, and Sydney.  I begin in Englewood at 74th & Normal, go to Grand Crossing at 66th & King Drive, take that beautiful, historic and inspiring Boulevard north to 35th and Dunkin Donuts!

At 5:45 AM I defrost and chip ice from Old # 7 and get the heat up -somewhat and at 6:10 head to pick up my co-pilot and fifteen year old mentor Clyde at 74th & Normal 
 The man emerges and runs to the van.  Hoists himself and a twenty pound book bag in to the van and greets me with a genuine "Good morning Mr. Hickey! My Mom says hi!  Let's Roll!"Route #66   Nelson Riddle   Nelson Riddle Collection

Download Route #66   Nelson Riddle   Nelson Riddle Collection MP3 for free on Dilandau

 Roll we do north toward Hamilton Park . . .

and then east to Wentworth, north again to 67th and then east to grab Chris - on the way Chris's Mom calls to say that he has the flu. Like Clyde, Chris never misses a day and commands a 3.8 GPA.
We pass Chris's home in the Park Homes and head north
 Under the 63rd Street L Platform
 and past Wahsington Park at 59th Street.  Past the 55th Street Garfield Boulevard the real charms of Chicago Architecture from the days of Burnham become evident.
 East and west we see scores of the very best examples of Chicago Architecture.
 We come to heart of Bronveville the birthplace of Chicago Blues and Jazz and the Harold Washington Library on the east side King Drive.
 At 45th we pass a beautiful old building boarded up and aching for a rehab.
 The Sax Man agrees!
 On the east side of 43rd and MLK drive stands my very favorite Chicago building.
 Just before 35th Street we come to the wonderful WWI Memorial to the Men of Bronze - the all African American Illinois Guard Regiment from Chicago that twisted the Kaiser's mustache until he gave up.   We make a right at 35th Street and a left at the strip mall that is home to our Dunkin Donuts

I explain that we are 'showing the flag,' like a 1920's Yankee gun-boat on the Yangtzee River - representing Leo High School in words and deeds and the lads have stepped up magnificently. For two years now, we are warmly greeted by the Dunkin Donuts regulars, headed by the Mall Manager Roy and the working the men who begin their day here.
Not a day goes by without a full report from Clyde

and fleshed out by Joe, Mick, Caleb, TJ, Latrell & etc.


The Dunkin Donuts He-Bull . . .

and the Dream Team serve us with coffee, OJ and a box of Munchkins ( chocolate glazed only).

These are my pals!  Missing is eighty year old Miss Marie and the famous BB Ref.


Back to the van and west on 35th Street, we pass Catholic League rival D.

 and approach the Dan Ryan.

 We pass Sox Park and merge with a near miss which upsets sissy-britches Mick



 Now, I pay great attention to rush hour south!
 We exit at 79th Street head west and arrive at Leo High School at 7:15 AM.

The guys polish off the Munchkins and get a hot breakfast at Leo.  The guys head to their activities, or tutoring sessions.  They put in a very long day of academics and sports and most do not get home until well after 7PM.

I am a very blessed man - Facta Non Verba.

Monday, December 09, 2013

Sharing Rides With Clyde , Leo High School Freshman


Varsity XC team tied for 2nd at the 5th Annual Gwendolyn Brooks Meet
Clyde and the X Country Team - The Man is Dead Center Front Row Tossing the Leo Lion "L"

I pick up ten guys every morning along a route that comprises Englewood, Grand Crossing and Bronzevill neighborhoods. My first passenger is a freshman named Clyde B@@#$^% who lives in the concrete pocket that intersects the Metra line, the Skyway and Vincennes/Wentworth along the Dan Ryan.

Leo freshman Clyde is a perfect gentleman, mature beyond his years, thoughtful, tough and suffers from no self-esteem issues, whatsoever. Clyde is unarguably the shortest man at Leo High School, but stands much taller than some of classmates.  He ran cross-country and is a member of the freshman basketball team now playing .500 ball with a victory over Calumet (Perspectives) and a tough loss to the Fighting Irish of Bishop McNamara on Friday.  Clyde can steal and handle the ball, but can not shoot to save his life and neither can his team mates. They'll get there.

I take the grey van from the lot on Sangamom each morning and drive north on Halsted to 74th Street, make a right to south bound Stewart, a left on 75th Street and quick left at Normal.  I am at Clyde's in less than six minutes.  His Mom is a nurse raising two boys in Englewood and paying Catholic school tuition.  She is a valiant young woman.  Clyde's brother attends a Chicago public grade school.  He too will attend Leo High School.

Clyde emerges from the warmth of this home promptly at 6:30AM, climbs in to the passenger seat next to me with genuine,   " Good Morning, Mr. Hickey!"  Morning Clyde! We begin the morning dialog.

We then talk all manner of things from stray dogs in the neighborhood, to Josh  McCown's rightful place as Bears QB, to basketball practice, to the glorious Chicago architecture between 63rd and 35th Street along Dr. King Drive. We pick up Chris A##$%^^ in the project homes still called South Park at 66th.  Chris is a classmate of Clyde's and a profoundly serious guy who keeps his own counsel.  For the last couple of weeks, construction projects on King Drive required us to detour through Washington Park to 55th Street.  This was grist for the Columbian Exposition narratives mill and Burnham's far-sighted development of the south side from the Lake west to State Street.

As I mentioned, we take in the beautiful homes and apartment buildings on Dr. King Drive.  My favorite is on the north east corner of  43rd Street. 

Clyde prefers the Chicken and Waffle House at 39th & King Drive Chicago's Rosscoe'sfor more than just the aesthetic but culinary graces bestowed beyond its portals.

We pass the Victory Monument of the Fighting 8th Illinois Regiment and arrive at 35th & and Dr. King Drive, take a right and quick left into the strip mall for the Dunkin Donuts Munchkins that will tide over the seven to eight gents who will join my two passengers for the journey to another day in Catholic education. Clyde's appearance in the door is cause for excitement among the early morning Coffee Anne  crowd,  Roy the mall maintenance manager and Miss Marie get greeted by the young man and then query Clyde's doings as he places the order for his fellow travellers. This fourteen year old gentleman is one of the best examples of what Leo High School is all about.

I look forward to my drives with Clyde.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

My Day? So Far, So Good.

A sinkhole swallowed three cars in the South Deering neighborhood on the Southeast Side early Thursday morning.
One person was taken from the hole, at 9600 South Houston Avenue, to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in serious-to-critical condition, according to the Chicago Fire Department.
The fire department responded to the scene around 5:30 a.m. when two cars were inside the hole. A third one slide into it after crews arrived.
Check back for details.
chicagobreaking@tribune.comSinkhole

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Busy Morning for a Lazy Man



The events of the morning of Monday February 25, 2013 recounted, as I can think of nothing else of weight and moment.

Yesterday, as I recall -

3:45 AM: The alarm! The goofy cat treated me to a hairball omelet as I padded from my basement lair to the shower. Following a litany of obscenities and vain threats, I gave up the staring contest with the soul-less creature;clean its regurgitation, it's sandbox and refilled the water and Whiskas mess-kits. Then, I got my revenge by smearing the goof's eyes with the Neo-Sporin ointment.  She hates that stuff and at half a yard a tube I am right with her.

I am a shallow man.

On to the shower!!!!!!  A five minute respite from cat concerns and my time and energy saving shaving in full torrent.

Selection of the day's snappy satire, fitting to the obligations and salutations of the day - smartly pressed Oxofrd cloth shirt, not so smartly pressed chinos and the bullet-proof and Hawk resistant charcoal Irish knit sweater from Kerry,O'Connell's Irish Fisherman Aran Sweater - Charcoal my Leo windbreak and on what passes for a head my charcoal eight-point Donegal herringbone skimmerIrish Tweed 8-piece Cap - Charcoal Brown Herringbone (HH 9521) - Watch Ou'Now!



4:30 AM: After checking my sleeping bairns and the front and back doors and the saltiest of valedictions to the  black trichobezoar blowing quadriped, I stepped out into the waning dark.  My neighbor Jimmy the Fireman was coming home and we hailed on another with congenial good nature attendant to most south siders -compliments pass when the quality meet. 

No presipitation whatsoever, storm warning notwithstanding and just the slightest of breezes.


Coffee with Karim, Lari and Vaneta at Dunkin Donuts and the trip to Leo.


4:50: Open the iron gates to the faculty parking lot and no need to scrape the ice from Old # 7 Grey Van. Office work.


6:00: Go go get the Villains ( Bronzeville and Canaryville)


6:20: 46th & Lowe Call the ever sleepy truant - no answer.


6:31: Depart for Dunkin Donuts in Bronzeville. Chat with the regulars pay for three French crullers for Big Man ( Freshman Football/Boxer)


6:50: Depart for BP Station Bronzeville - Call truant again.  Two more Leo Men of Steel board the board - witty repartee.  Depart for Pizza Nova 43rd & Wallace.


7:02: Pull up well past the edge of the building in order to scan the foot traffic southbound on Wallace seven gents board.  Witty Repartee Morphs Hip-Hop Meets Country. I admonish, "Gentlemen, in order to maintain my avuncular attitude for all and sundry, understand that vulgarity is no substitute for wit."


Bronzeville Big Man's Riposte- "Hickey, do Uh-Vunklar mean gay?"


Howls of disdain and cheeky chuckles at my expense. Depart for Graham Elementary faculty parking at 46th & Emerald - No Truant and no return call ( Little bastard!).  One gent boards. " No donuts, again!  This sucks Ass!"


With smile of understanding I reply, " I quite agree and so does the vacuity of my accounts -checking and savings."


7:15: Depart for the hallowed halls of Leo High School enter the southbound Dan Ryan at 43rd Street and deftly merge to the express lanes.


7:29: Arrive at Leo High School -" I'll drive you bums to Nova after school."  I back the vehicle in place and return to my work station.


If I had to work for a living, I'd resent that hairball.



Friday, January 11, 2013

Perseverance: You Don't Get 'Atta-boys, Trophies, or Ribbons for Doing Your Job

"In Perseverance; thunder crashes, sails billow, waves toss the fragile boat. We see that the clouds are about to break. The sea will calm; the sailor's perseverance will soon be rewarded by a return to God's safe heaven. Perhaps this painting can assure each of us that if we can simply persevere, God's hand of love will soon disperse each storm." 

    - Thomas Kinkade ( 1958-2012) American Artist

Perseverance -noun
1.
steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state,etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.
2.
Theology continuance in a state of grace to the end, leading to eternal salvation.
Origin: 
1300–50; Middle English perseveraunce  < Middle French perseverance  <Latin persevÄ“rantia.  See persevere-ance


Every morning I have the golden opportunity to engage the youth of America, Illinois, Chicago, Bronzeville and St. Gabe's Parish in Canaryville.   I bring a baker's dozen young gents to Leo High School.  All but one senior are under the age of 17 - ten white boys and three black gents. 

The senior is a quiet studious and good humored young man from Bronzeville already accepted at Rutgers University in his native New Jersey.  His Dad worked there for years, but moved back to Chicago last year. Though proud to be a a Wendell Phillips Alumnus, this successful and proud man wanted no part of the Chicago Public Schools 2012-2013 for his son and chose Leo High School, a Catholic " pay school."His son was brought up to fear God, honor his family and work.  His son's efforts and achievements are the payoff for Old School values rooted in family and reinforced by a  Leo Catholic education.

Catholic education is centered around Christ.  Christ is the reason for the school and everything that happens  with regard to a school's mission must be centered on Christ.  Most kids at Leo are not Catholic, but nearly all are Christian and a couple of the guys are Muslim -Nation of Islam.   Having God as the stablizing center -post of their school, reminds the guys that stability is essential.

Most of our guys are not as blessed with the stability and steady-direction at home the above mentioned gent enjoys. Our kids are, what the PC would call, financially challenged - in Lionese, piss poor. Sadly, most have no male presences in the home and too many have toxic male influences - one poor kid had to fight with his Dad in order to get Pa's Bear Game pals to stop smoking dope in the kid's bedroom. 

The TV Shows Shameless and My Babies Mommas are all too real  in order to be in any way amusing or valuable - other than be deemed  Chicago Values. More so, the kids living out these scripts of those shows here in Chicago have moms who just might drink up their tuition money, buy no groceries, purchase no winter clothing while Dad does a nickel for boosting freight or slinging dope. Funny?  If you are the type of person who enjoys tormenting the handicapped, I suppose it might.  Interestingly enough, it seems to me that  the very people who are offended by ethnic humor, find racism in their morning bowl of Wheaties, worry about how many sheets of Charmin other people are using, or developing educational agendas for public education match this Shameless fan- demographic. Revolution and radicalism only grow out of economic and social comfort - Hyde Park, Evanston, the Lakeshore & etc.  There are no Marxists in actual school foxholes. I have yet to run into one, after forty years in teaching. Teachers who confront miseries seem to load up on common sense.

Despite a rainbow of handicaps, these young gents achieve.  The semester grades are coming out this week and my van load has achieved a modest record of achievement - mind you, I did not factor in the young senior's 3.86 Average into the mix; thus a sampling of twelve ( two black and ten white) - 2.36 Cumulative Van GPA!  I'll take it.

One kid spent two weeks in the hospital
One kids brother was murdered in November
One kid's Mom spent some time CCDC
One kid ditches school at the drop of a hat, but has maintained 3.9 in Algebra

All of them are at core sweet and smart kids; all of them enjoy busting my aged Aggies and all of them manage to pull themselves out of bed, find something like clean socks and school clothes, eat something other than Flamin' Hotz and Mountain Dew Red and learn.

None of these kids, other than the senior who will attend Rutgers, appear to have been told that purpose is essential to living, but they manage to have great perseverance. . .my God, do they ever.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

The Bronzeville/Canaryville Express: Leo Transportation: A Daily Giggle Mission


"I love the young dogs of this age, they have more wit and humour and knowledge of life than we had; but then the dogs are not so good scholars." Samuel Johnson from Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson

I leap out of the sack every morning, hit my knees to the floor and pray the Memorare and the Novena to St. Teresa, in anticipation of my tasks and the fun the day brings to this old high school teacher.

I get to transport the lads from Bronzeville and Canaryville neighborhoods to Leo High School. The Ford van gets stuffed like a Christmas goose with teenage lads. At 35th & Dr. Martin Luther king Drive's BP station, I pick up the giant Daylon -14 years of 300 + lbs. of muscle, bone and more than few layers of baby fat; the lean and athletic Joe who racks up football field yardage like Willie Moscani on a nine ball felt.  Then the two stops in Canaryville at Pizza Nova for AJ, Nick, Brian, Ryan and Sean and Graham Elementary at 44th & Emerald for Jeff, Mitch, Tommy, Sal and Bryan.

The patter is wild, the consumption of Dunkin Donut holes (glazed only) furious past human understanding, and the teasing of this Methuzalah behind the wheel a thing of beauty - Hip-Hop, Novice Blasphemies, pleas, male malodorousness and beefy good fellowship.

Now, I must $#$%, shower and shave and get about  to my morning's obligations and delights.  

Sunday, September 02, 2012

CPS v. CTU - I Don't Have a Skunk in This Fight



I had plenty of opportunities to become a public school teacher.  I took a pass.   From 1975 right up to this Sunday Mass, I thank God I did not.

I know hundreds of public school teachers, union members all; nevertheless, many are great people who teach kids with authority, great kindness and limitless patience.  Their patience is shredded by the bureaucracy for which they labor, be it Grayslake District # 127 or Chicago Public Schools and the Teachers Union to which they must belong as a legislated condition of employment.

In the words of my salty-tongued departed Dad, they are "between a $hit and a Sneeze."

That's the nature of Public Education.

My neighbors in Chicago Public Schools are taxed with goofy policy that in no way has anything to do with academics and labor fakirs playing with their paychecks and working conditions.  They love teaching and universally despise CPS and CTU.  It's a paycheck.

I predict that the Strike will be used to arm-twist Rahm "Mayor Coon-Eyes" Emanuel with Karen "Big Tuna" Lewis threatening to withhold an endorsement of Obama 2012 and a ubsequent cave-in by Rahm, Jean Claude and all sundry at CPS. Huzzah! It's all about the $$$$$$$$$$$ and political hoopla.

I get a paycheck and love going to work everyday.  I never work a day.  In fact I rarely use the word work with reference to my vocation.  I go to school.  That is the difference between teaching in public education and a Catholic School.  I learn as well as impart the little that I know.

Yesterday, I took my love to the Soul Bowl ( Hales v. Leo) on the site of Chicago's oldest college - St. Xavier College(University) - the one that Obama's White House declared no longer a religious insititution.  One building remains from that old Sisters of Mercy college for women on the west side of the Hales Franciscan Campus -just beyond the athletic field.  It was a very long day for Leo High School - our JV Team lost 24-12 and our Varisty bowed to Hales 20-12. Hales Franciscan is celebrating its 50th Anniversary as a Catholic prep school for African American young men and no better way to do so than besting Mighty Lions.

The elegant and lovely young woman with whom I spend my quality time has as much interest in athletics as I would exploring the history and influence of scent -parfumare (through smoke in Latin). However, this opportunity to stand behind the Leo bench and take in the sights and scents of young manhood in energetic combat with opportunity she found enchanting.

MS. S met the Canaryvillains and Bronzevillains, whom I transport to Leo each morning and witnessed their athletic heroics that fell short of victory.  Skinny little tough guys like Brian, Mitch and BK and brawny stawarts like Tommy and the gargantuan Daylon.  BK weighs as much as one of the cheeks of my rump and by dint of courage attention to detail was 'going both ways', recovered two fumbles and made several tackles during crucial downs.  Little Mitch confounded receivers and pushed the play to the sidelines.   Brian weighs less than BK and Mitch and is a wide receiver who snagged several hard fired pigskins from the clutches of two Hales deep-cover agents.
Big Daylon was felled by an ankle injury in the second half and his loss to the offensive line is reflected in the final score. Hales is a quality program and like Leo and every Catholic school in Chicago will not go on strike.

The motto of Leo High School is Facta Non Verba -Deeds Not Words.  That seems the universal motto of Catholic and private schools as well.  Picket signs are not needed to tell the cameras and the media that its is "About the Children."  That is a given.

" We will pay you $ 21,000. . . "  You will like hell, Adios Father!  Good luck filling the spot.

Since 1975, I taught at Bishop McNamara ( '75-88), La Lumiere School ( '88-94), Bishop Noll Institute('94-95) and Leo High School ( 1995-Present) and parted fair-friends and remain most happy.

Nope I chose to take my resume to Catholic teaching, because I am a Catholic and because I find slogans and memes tiresome.  The John Dewey public education doctrine that replaced Truth with Inquiry has always seemed educational poison to me.  I am a professional.  Never been fired. Teaching is my trade and my vocation. Ms. S saw some of the handiwork in the eager, frustrated, baggage-burdened, financially challenged faces of the young men in hard combat on a football field.  She noted the respect and genuine affection each student athlete reflected on their coaches, teachers and administrators. More so, she was over-whelmed by the presence and beefy tactile of the recent graduates who thickened the sidelines.  These guys ( Akim, T.O., Steve - all playing college football) hug hard and mean it even though they had endured and understood the ass-chewings and character remonstrances meted out by us greybeards over the previous four years.

"They really love you guys ( Mike Holmes, Noah Cannon, Dan McGrath, Pete Doyle and even me). You are so lucky to do what you love. It must be great to work at Leo." Or any Catholic School, really. If the pay is too low, exit smiling.

We do not work, we go to school.



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Friday, July 06, 2012

Canaryville Roots


  Leo President Dan McGrath and four of the seven Canaryvillains at Leo High School with Joe's Mom and Coach Fogarty: from the left (Leo GorceyHuntz HallBobby JordanGabriel Dell,)
“When I went to take the entrance exams, it was during the famous winter storms [of 1979]. We took the test that day. They had to make arrangements to get us back home. Jay Strandring drove the Canaryville guys back home. He dropped us off at one of the viaducts because he realized he wouldn’t be able to get back out if he went under the viaduct. We walked back in the neighborhood. I think that was my first time ever at the school. I must have shadowed with my brother there once or twice, I suppose. But the first day I went to Leo as a student, I had to ask the bus driver if that was the school. We stopped at 79th, and I asked if that was Leo, and he said, “You’re going to a school you don’t even know where it’s at.”
I said, “Yeah.” He said, “That’s it.”
“My two oldest brothers went to St. Ignatius. My brother right above me went to Leo. My mom didn’t really like St. Rita at the time because my uncle—her brother—had gone there. My brother [Michael] just didn’t like school. It didn’t matter where he went. A funny story about my first day at Leo, I’m walking past the doorway and I hear: ‘McFarlane.’ I backed up, until I was in the doorway, and it was one of the [football] coaches, Dave Mutter. He grabbed me by the shirt and said: ‘Are you anything like your brother?’ I looked at him and said, ‘Absolutely not.’ That kind of shocked him. He let me go and he said something like, ‘Good for you.’ My brother had a reputation by the time I got to Leo. During my time at Leo, my brother would stop me in the hallway and say, ‘We’re going to the beach. Do you wanna go?’ With his buddies, he would just disappear. I was always afraid to do something like that with my parents.
“I took the Halsted bus when I first started at Leo, and then we had a bus service that started to pick us up. It was close to my house, I had to walk down like five houses to the corner.”

Father William McFarlane '83

This summer it has been my pleasure and pride to pick-up and deliver incoming freshman to Leo High School -one very big lad from Bronzeville and seven gents from Canaryville -One huge black kids and seven hard-scrabble pale-faces from St. Gabe's.  I pick them up between 7-7:25 AM and they are never late and very rarely absent.  My task is merely a cog in a recruitment and marketing machine developed by Leo football coach, admissions director and Father Flanagan to hundreds of Leo Men, Mike Holmes and Leo President Dan McGrath.

Leo High School is a Catholic high school for young men situated in the Gresham neighborhood on 79th Street just west of Halsted ( 7910 S. Sangamon Street -60620).  This iconic lion of a building is home to thousands of men from Chicago's stockyard, industrial and railroad past. Leo was built at the command of George Cardinal Mundelein and under the supervision of Msgr. Peter Shewbridge, pastor of St. Leo Parish, now, closed but still serving veterans through Catholic Charities. The building designed by Joseph McCarthy, lieutenant and disciple of Daniel Burnham went up in 1921;  the school opened in 1926.

Catholics from all over the industrial south side of Chicago sent their sons to Leo High School. which competed huskily with older and more established Mount Carmel, St. Rita and De La Salle. One of the most powerful cadres of talent attended Leo from St. Gabriel Parish in Canaryville.  e.g. Basketball standout James "Bro" Farrell dominated the hardwood floors of local, state and national opponents. St. Gabe's, south of Bridgeport, is the incubator of south side Catholic Chicago.
That is because of a man and an institution - Msgr. Maurice Dorney* and the Chicago Stockyards.

The Chicago Stockyards, St. Gabe's, was home to workers - not the affluent scions of burger families from Lake or DuPage counties who Occupy Chicago with Visa and Mastercards in their wallets - workers who scratched out a living, contributed to their church, built schools and spent their free-time fighting for the eight-hour day.  These workers penned, drovered, killed, butchered, rendered and cleaned every thing on four legs for meat, teeth, bones, marrow hides, horns  to be transformed for America's tables, hairbrushes, buttons, wardrobes and footwear.  They made soap, gelatin, fertilizer and bacon for the Armour, Agar, Cudahy, Swift and Hammond families.  They lost fingers, lungs and lives in the act of building community.   Father Dorney protected their paychecks from gamblers, pimps and thugs and their dignity from Social Darwinism. There is no expressway named for Msgr. Dorney. Dorney was and remains the spirit of Canaryville, That spirit is reflected in the accomplishments past, present and to come by his spiritual children.

Muhammad Ali said that, in his opinion, the greatest boxer of all time was Canaryville boxer Packy McFarland; Chicago White Sox 1st baseman George Moriarty was Canaryville born and bred and would become a Cub and later move to a long career as Detroit Tiger, where he took root as a coach and American League umpire - his grandson ( here with Robert DeNiro)would become one of America's greatest actors and accomplished musician, composer and author Michael Moriarty. Canaryville is home to priests as well as  punchers of pigs and pedestrians.

The south side Catholic union family began in the blood, bones and hides of Canary.  Many of those families became wildly successful and moved from The 'Ville but never out of it. My maternal grandfather was a lather according to his union card, but moreso a Regans Colts shoulder-hitter and utility tough guy for the Cermak/Kelly/Kennelly and Daley Reg'lar Demacrats as well as occasional operative for Ralph Sheldon.  His brother became a priest and labor chaplain - he would give the last rites to Brady, McCarthy ( Leo '67) and Delahanty in Washington D.C. when Jodie Foster's stalker tried to kill President Reagan. Carnaryville seems to be everywhere.

Canaryville is physically and spiritually manifest at Leo High School once again. African American and white Catholic Alumni have worked with Mike Holmes and Dan McGrath for the last three years to give Leo some ethnic diversity - since 1991, Leo High School has been 100% African American. Black alumni behind Mike Holmes have pushed to recruit Hispanic and white students.  Black Alumni Mike Anderson and Mike Lee have teamed with Canaryvillains and Irish Catholic alums Brian Fogarty and Jack Farnan and impressed young white guys from St. Gabe's parish to be Leo Men. Last year Jeff "White Chocolate" X___________ added his see-through Irish pelt to the darker hued Lions.  This year, Leo welcomes seven more Canaryville gentlemen:Tommy, AJ, Brian F, Brian C, Joe C, CK, Mitch C are Leo Men!


My morning's route takes me to Bronzeville, where in the shadow of the Black Doughboy on Martin Luther King Drive at 35th Street, I wait for Daylon F - a mountain of sweetness and innocence packed into 6'3" and change. Daylon is the latest in the many Leo Men from Bronzeville, like Leo Akim Hunter (Leo 2004 & Northwestern University 2008).


 Daylon and I head west past De La Salle Institute and hang a left at Wentworth on the front porch of Comiskey Park ( it will never be The Cell) and head south with this daily admonition from my co-pilot Daylon -" Don't Turn on Root Street and get to swearin' Mr. Hickey."  Architect John Root, for whom the street is named, helped Maurice Dorney build St. Gabriel's Church, school, rectory and convent, as well as affordable housing for the working families - many of whom still call St. Gabe's home more than century later.  We maintain our course to 43rd Street and hang a right westward to Emerald Street and carefully wind around the cul-de-sac lite south to Graham Elementary School parking lot. 


We are usually greeted by this school's engineer Dean Fuller Leo '71 a resident of Canaryville. The red-heads and pale faces load the Ford Van with critiques of the Dunkin Donut selection, " No long-johns?  Don't get powdered, please it's as bad as the nut-sprinkles on them, Mr. Hickey. Just get frosted and we won't have a problem"  Likewise, I get informed about the upcoming Freshman football season, Miss Meany's math and Coach Ed Adams' reading classes.  All of the young men will play football, basketball, baseball and a few will box. They are good students and delightful companions who lack not a jot for self-esteem.  None of them have central air conditioning and universally accept heat.  They are tough kids from Bronzeville amd Canaryville. Daylon's only complaint is the obviously racist hornet who torments his daily drink of water at the public fountain west of the CPS school parking lot.  The Dunkin Donuts have a very short life-span - roughly 43rd Street to 79th Street.

*Saint Gabriel Parish & Elementary School are positioned in the heart of Canaryville, a small community of several third and fourth generation Irish immigrants. The neighborhood is extremely proud of its strong roots to Ireland with family ties running deep and strong in the parish and school. Saint Gabriel is a hidden gem, tucked away amid century old homes and secluded from the neighborhoods surrounding Canaryville.
As Saint Gabriel Parish celebrates its 130th Anniversary, we would like to share how the school and parish began. Many people know that Father Maurice Dorney was St. Gabriel’s first pastor, but did you know… • Father Dorney had the foresight to purchase 20 lots (from 45th to 46th and Lowe) for $500(!) to build the church, school, convent and rectory for Saint Gabriel’s • While pastor, Father Dorney graduated from law school • Also know as “The King of the Yards,” Father was friends to both workingman and company owner, procuring jobs and helping avert strikes • Father Dorney was gifted with a block of stock from the head of National Livestock Bank – after two decades the dividends grew to $68,000, and the money was spend “for the welfare of the church, and assisting in the school’s of Saint Gabriel” • Father Traveled to Ireland in 1887 and was instrumental in the exoneration of Charles Stewart Parnell (champion of home rule for Ireland) who was accused of complicity in a murder.

 http://www.leohighschool.org/
http://www.ottawalife.com/2012/07/moriartys-musings-my-french-symphony/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragen's_Colts
http://www.leohsalumniassoc.com/alumni%20stories/mcfarlane83/mcfarlane.html
http://www.connorcoyne.com/blog/2004/09/back-to-canaryville-blues/
http://saintgabes.com/?option=com_content&view=article&id=48&Itemid=56
http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/mcfarland.html