Related by Marriage: First Apartment, Same Neighborhood

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, many Lithuanian Displaced Persons lived, worked, and socialized within the radius of a few miles. This was true for new arrivals who settled in the neighborhoods of Brighton Park, Gage Park, Marquette Park, West Lawn, and Archer Heights. Those neighborhoods surrounded Midway Airport.

When Mr. Irene's Dad first arrived in Chicago in 1949, he lived in a boardinghouse just across the street from the family home of his sponsor. A first-wave Lithuanian woman owned the boarding house; she rented rooms and provided meals to second-wave, single men. A cousin of Mr. Irene's Dad, who fled Lithuania with Dad and his brother Ignas, lived just a few doors down with her husband and young daughter in rented rooms on the same block in Brighton Park, South Artesian, near 40th Street.

After completing his U.S. Army service in 1953, Mr. Irene's Dad returned to the same boardinghouse and eventually found work alongside fellow Lithuanian DPs in a factory that manufactured seats for Ford automobiles. The factory stood in a sprawling industrial district along 65th Street, between Cicero and Narraganset Avenues. Just a few blocks south along Cicero Avenue were other manufacturing neighbors like a Ford assembly plant (that became the Ford City Shopping Center in 1965), Tootsie Roll, Sweetheart Cup, and Cracker Jack.

Mr. Irene's Dad shared his room with an older fellow he had known in the Displaced Persons camp at Seligenstadt. In early 1956, while Mr. Irene's Dad was visiting his brother in Los Angeles, his roommate passed away in his sleep, presumably from a heart attack.

Brighton Park, Spring, 1956. Immaculate Conception Lithuanian Catholic Church. Mr. Irene's Dad, standing at the front, on the right, serves as a pallbearer for the funeral of his boarding house roommate. Many younger DPs, however, were not Immaculate Conception parishoners. Instead, they attended Sunday Mass at Holy Cross Parish near 46th and Woods, in the nearby Back of the Yards neighborhood.

*     *     *     *     *

Shortly after the funeral, Mr. Irene's Dad moved into his first apartment with another immigrant friend. The spacious flat was just a few blocks south of his old boardinghouse, near the intersection of 43rd and Campbell. Mr. Irene's Dad occupied that apartment until his wedding day.

Brighton Park, Chicago, Illinois, sometime between 1956 and 1957. Mr. Irene's Dad relaxes on the sofa in his new apartment. The flat stood behind a first-floor grocery store operated by the owners of the six-unit building, themselves recently arrived DPs. The apartment had two bedrooms and an ample, eat-in kitchen. Mr. Irene's Dad made good use of his Army mess-hall training: quick sales at the grocery store frequently prompted hearty pork chop dinners.

 

*     *     *     *     *

 



Vytautas Grove, Chicago, Illinois, about 1957. Mr Irene's Dad and his apartment roommate chat in the parking lot during a Sunday picnic.