Backlands
The backlands: this is the Chicago you only see from the el. Its alleys, fire escapes, backyards, and balconies are unselfconscious because all-but-invisible, save for the instant you peer down on them from the frigid el platform or a moving train.
There’s a gnarly, ugly, decrepit, character to much of the terrain: the untrimmed vine, the dying tree, jumbles of wires or garbage cans. But with them come offerings of the unexpected, the whimsical or ingenious: the gardens people devise on tiny fire escapes; the signs meant for you to read as you rush by.
You glimpse the unwanted but, with it, many other things that keep the city running: the electrical grid, garbage trucks, construction crews. Secret parking lots. Boarded-up doors and graffiti bespeaking adventures and openings now inaccessible and archaic, layers of life quilted on to the city’s bricks and boards, congealed into something more enduring than little ol’ me.
Yup, from the windows of the “L” so much of what one sees is as you de-picked it. Interesting the way those tracks do snake through the city-isn’t it………Nice photos !
Most of my pictures taken from the trains do not turn out. at all. I fantasize about getting up early on a cloudy Saturday and boarding the train way out in Ravenswood Manor, to take some pictures that do justice to the scenes from the L. I’m sure other better photographers are out there doing that, though. For me, the photographs are mainly an occasion for writing and documenting the things that are notable in a day. Thank you Harley!
I’ve always loved this part of the ride! Can anyone answer this question: How do those folks get any sleep?
Hi Jody,
Everyone says one gets used to it. Do you believe it?
I don’t live near the el, but even so the noise level around my place can be deafening because of the adjacent alley. A nice, echo-ey alley, where a garbage truck, a car horn, or a snow-blower can sound like thunder, particularly if one is trying to sleep!
I love the spirit of the people who live near the el. They are the true urbanites.
Celia