There’s a lot of Chicago immediately west of Chicago.Chicago’s western suburbs offer stimulating attractions, “A” class shopping centers, such as Oak Brook Center and Yorktown, with plenty of lovely open spaces and easy access to the city’s attractions, via the Eisenhower Expressway. I chose a Marriott property in this location on a recent trip to visit the new 16-inch Softball Hall of Fame, Forest Park, and the “ Italians in Chicago” exhibit at the Italian Cultural Center, Stone Park. Marriott’s Residence Inn Chicago Oak Brook, is perfect for extended stays and offers a high level of service, comfort and convenience.
I love this all-suite hotel for its homey and convenient layout, complimentary cooked and cold breakfasts and afternoon “socials” with food and beverages and huge lounge, perfect for after-hours meetings on comfy sofas around the fireplace. The design of the registration and entrance area makes for very quick check-ins, putting guests in their rooms within minutes of arrival. There’s plenty of free parking and carts for handling luggage if needed. The spacious and comfortable suites provide a full living room, televisions, desk with internet connections, full kitchen, plenty of closet space and dining area with complimentary coffee supplies. You never feel confined, even with long stays, in what is essentially a mini-apartment. Of course, there is an indoor pool, fitness center and business center with free computer access. The staff is friendly, professional and accommodating; there are safe deposit boxes at the front desk.
The hotel is set back, in a small commercial park, Jorie Plaza, south of 22nd Street, the main east/west road in Oak Brook. From here you can be at O’Hare Airport or downtown Chicago in half an hour (traffic permitting), shop at Oak Brook Center or dine in upscale restaurants, such as Braxton’s, next to the former Marshall Field’s store (Macy’s) in the OB Shopping Center. As a frequent visitor to the area I’ve come to rely on Braxton’s for meetings; the booths provide privacy and guests are allowed to linger as long as necessary. And the seafood is delicious and moderately priced. There are plenty of other good restaurants and shopping along 22nd Street and west in the Yorktown Shopping Center. I always visit the Fannie May candy stores in OBSC for a supply of their delectable chocolates to take home and for gifts. While a frugal sort, I’m happy to purchase luxurious Fannie May chocolate, as I believe it to be the very best. It lacks that waxy taste some other chocolates entail, even expensive ones.Oak Brook is about 6 miles from Chicago’s western edge where the suburbs begin at Oak Park, land of Frank Lloyd Wright houses, Ernest Hemingway history, and stately Gothic churches. The surrounding towns, original farming communities, such as Downers Grove, Naperville and Aurora have grown so that now the suburban sprawl along the commercial/corporate corridor of I-88 is cheek to jowl west to Iowa. Oak Brook is different; it is a totally new town, the vision of the late Paul Butler and is home to many corporate headquarters. Among the companies that populate Oak Brook are MacDonald’s, Blistex, Ace Hardware, Federal Signal Corp., Papermate, Lions Club International and many more. These days the above-mentioned towns have Disney-ized Main Streets and glamorous residential developments. Their cute Main Streets are a sort of reflected glory, as Walt Disney was a Chicago boy, who also lived in other Midwestern towns growing up. The Main Street he designed for Disneyland, California, 1955, reflects the look and feel of his boyhood hometowns. He knew this image would resonate with the millions of Americans who visit the Park every year. Oak Brook is spread out, was developed carefully, with Butler’s tasteful design control influencing every aspect of this beautiful area, down to the placement of scrubs around the red brick commercial buildings. Like Walt Disney, Paul Butler created a unique environment for enjoyment, sporting and business interests. Polo and golf enthusiasts know the area for its fine sports facilities.
Chicago has always been known as a great sports town. There is plenty of excitement with professional teams in football, hockey, and basketball - with two baseball teams. Fans can support all the pro teams, but they have to choose one baseball team. Either you are for the Chicago Cubs or the Chicago White Sox – never both. The only place those two opposing groups might come together would be on the fields of the famously competitive Chicago 16 inch softball leagues. This game, which began back in the late 1880s, when the Butler family had a diary farm on what would become Oak Brook, developed into the perfect game for the Depression era – all kids needed were a bat and softball. No gloves or fancy uniforms for these kids that played on small schoolyard gravel fields or in neighborhood parks.
As a rather clueless little girl I only knew about softball because my two older brothers, the late Chris Rocco and Peter Rocco, played. There seemed to be dozens of boys in our far west Chicago neighborhood that played softball. Yet, I don’t recall ever going to a game unless it was in our local schoolyard. There isn’t one photo of the Rocco boys in their baseball uniforms – if they had them – or with their ever-changing teams. Softball was a male world, without the adult fanfare accorded Little League players today, who routinely have dozens of parents, grandparents, and assorted relatives cheering them on. I wonder about this somewhat over-adulation where little kids get a trophy for just showing up. But that’s another story.
The long-ago boys played softball, (the ball is actually heavy and hard, but not as hard as a league ball) as my brother Peter said, “…for the love of the game.” Enough people loved the game to organize a 16-inch Softball Hall of Fame Museum. It began in 1996 as a movement to preserve the unique history of the game and to encourage the playing of the game for today’s youth. The modest outdoor museum is located in suburban Forest Park, at DesPlaines and Harrison streets, in a small park; www.16inchesoftballhof.com/history. The museum forum consists of eight display cases featuring hundreds of Hall of Fame inductees, surrounded by four baseball bat columns with a monumental center “clincher” softball to anchor the arrangement.
The outdoor Hall of Fame Museum was dedicated earlier this year, with about 1,000 persons attending. This is a big game in Chicago. A permanent building is in the planning stages. I visited the fledgling museum with my HOFer brother, Peter Rocco, in October. Rain was falling, winds were blowing, nonetheless it was a delight to look at the kiosks to find Peter’s picture and then to read of other players who were known to me only as softball player pals of my brothers. There were Chicago media people, the brother-in-law of the great American tenor Mario Lanza, the ubiquitous restaurateur Rich Melman and other names once known to me as a little girl. Untold numbers of Chicagoans, beginning in the 1920s, fell in love with this hometown game, where it took mighty arms and a quick wit to play successfully. The great thing about this game is men could and would play eternally. Men in their 70s are still playing today.
Now, I wish I had been taken to watch the games when I was young. I wish I had photos of my big brothers with their bats and balls. The Softball Hall of Fame is a wonderful museum that will grow because it honors a significant Chicago institution and the many devoted supporters of the game. It’s worth a look for folks interested in supporting this homegrown Chicago sport.
Afterwards, we headed north west of the baseball museum, going north on Mannheim Road to check out the Italian Cultural Center, 3800 Division St., Stone Park, Il 60165; phone 708-345-3842. www.casaitaliachicago.net. The rainy weather kept us from enjoying the lovely grounds. Frankly, it was difficult to find the museum building as the streets were under construction, but I’m told they have been completed. Nonetheless, I recommend visitors call the Center to obtain directions to the museum and the hours and days of operation. The day we visited no other guests were present.
We had gone to view Dominic Candeloro’s “Italians in Chicago” exhibit. Dr. Candeloro is the author of several books on the Italian experience in Chicago, including "Italians in Chicago."
The small museum building has several small rooms with Italian artifacts and art objects, including a celebrated model of St. Peter's Square, Vatican City, Italy, but it was the narrative of “Italians in Chicago” that had my attention. Candeloro’s intention is to tell the story of Italian immigration through photographs, clothing, letters, work papers and ephemera.
Italians were among the approximately 12 million legal European immigrants to enter the United States through Ellis Island, which was in operation from 1892 to 1954. Today, approximately 50% of the U.S. population can trace ancestry to some person in that 12 million. Italians, most from repressive Southern Italy, were among the Europeans who entered the U.S. and submitted to both legal and medical examinations. These individuals could not have a criminal record and were required to be self-sufficient, in good health, with a promise of work and a sponsor. They neither expected nor received any monetary assistance from government agencies. They expected to work, not being inclined to accept any "free lunch." Being admitted into America was all they asked – they did the rest themselves.
Dr. Candeloro’s exhibit requires focused attention as many objects and photographs are in the original format, not enlarged. The materials are divided among four subjects: family; work; neighborhoods and gatherings. For example, the “work” section held photos of small shops, men working at various manual jobs, work papers, including papers permitting children to quit school to help support the family, which was considered honorable. According to this exhibit the immigrants sent 75% of their wages back to Italy to help their families. The estimate given for the amount was $750 million sent from 1880-1920. Considering that a man might earn 10 cents an hour it was a considerable sum. The materials also include steamship logs, tickets, receipts and citizenship papers.
An undated letter written by Angela Digiorgio, a wife in Italy, to her husband in American, offers insight into the hardships endured in this period where communications was mostly restricted to letters.
“I have not heard from you, dear husband…some said you had been injured….” She wrote how she wept each night…yet, ended with hope and “I embrace you with all my heart…your children kiss your hand…Your affectionate wife” That line, "...your children kiss you hand..." broke my heart. The end of that story is not shown.
In general, the immigrants settled in various sections of Chicago according to their towns of origin. Italians, as other ethnics do, identified themselves through their family and their towns. If your family, such as mine, originated in the mountain town, near the ruin of a medieval castle, inland from Sorrento and the Bay of Naples, called Ricigliano, you were a Riggi. I’m told my Rocco family arrived in Chicago some time in the 1880s. A small 1925 photo of a religious procession in Ricigliano, Italy, shows the men carrying a statue of the town’s patron Saint Rocco. Those festivals have continued to the present time. My late sister, Christine Francis Rocco, attended mass honoring the feast of Saint Rocco every year at St. William Church, Chicago, until 2005.
As the Italians prospered they moved out of the old neighborhoods, buying homes at the edge of Chicago. Some families, such as my Rocco grandfather, took the neighborhood with them. Three sets of married siblings, who bought several three-flat buildings in the mid-1920s, in the Austin area, took some of the neighborhood with them. But some did not. Many moved and then longed for the warmth and comfort of their former homes. One placard laments “…the new neighborhood can never become what the other one was…like a mother dying…the stepmother cannot take the place of the mother…and the new neighborhood cannot replace the old…”
Candeloro’s book, “Italians in Chicago” has a photograph of a typical newspaper stand. The caption states that virtually "...all the city’s newsstands were run by men from Ricigliano, who then sent their sons to college and law school." The book states that as late as the 1960s the barber’s union indicated the majority of barbers were of Italian decent. They, too, sent their sons to college and grandsons to law and medical schools. My husband’s father and grandfather were among these men. These were men who moved up from working class to small businessmen. This was the promise fulfilled for the Italians who came to Chicago in the early 1900s. This is a museum worth experiencing for those interested in the immigrant and Italian experience in Chicago. As a traveler I relish museums such as the softball and Italian, before they become Disney-ized and slickly over-produced. There is a charm and sincerity about them in the early stages when the experiences depicted are immediate. I'm glad I saw these two little gems. For additional information contact: Chicago Office of Tourism; www.cityofchicago/tourism.orgwww.explorechicago.org.
Marriott’s Residence Inn Chicago Oak Brook, 790 Jorie Boulevard, Oak Brook, Illinois 60523, is perfect for extended stays and offers a high level of service, comfort and convenience. Contact reservations@residenceinn.com or google the hotel name for information; Phone 1-630-571-1200; FAX1-630-571-1300.
Angela Rocco DeCarlo is a former Chicago journalist, who covers travel, entertainment, and lifestyle. She lives in exile, in Southern California, missing her old neighborhood. Copyright, 2009.
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