From Midway to Seven Swamps

 The trackage where the Orange Line now runs used to be one of my old stomping grounds.  No passenger trains ran on it then, and there was very little freight activity.  There were several side tracks between Pulaski and California, a couple of them were used to store empty box cars, and the rest of them were all rusty from lack of use.  Vegetation had grown wild for years around those unused tracks, and the rabbits had taken it over.  We weren't allowed to hunt them with guns, but I did manage to shoot a rabbit there once with a bow and arrow, and it was where my two beagles got most of their training before hunting for real out in the country with my father.  

We followed the tracks all the way out to Midway a few times, but there was better rabbit cover closer to home, so we mostly ranged between Pulaski and Seven Swamps, which was located just across California.  Despite its name, there were only five swamps, and they were more like potholes than swamps.  It looked like the whole thing was one big swamp at one time and somebody had started to fill it in with dirt and busted up concrete but never completed the project.  It must have been a long time ago because fair sized trees had grown up on the site, which was unusual for Chicago prairies in those days.  We had the place to ourselves during the daytime, but rumor had it that Seven Swamps got pretty lively at night.  I don't think that large parties were held there, though, because there wasn't much litter on the ground, just the occasional used rubber or wad of tissue.

When I came home on leave from the army I discovered that Seven Swamps had been replaced by a big warehouse for Budweiser beer, and that no trace of the original site remained.  It was then I knew that I was going to have to find someplace else to live after I was discharged because the Old Neighborhood was going to Hell.