CKS thoughts...

Chicago, Chicago that toddlin' town!
Chicago, Chicago I will show you around-
I love it!
Bet your bottom dollar you'll lose the blues in
Chicago, Chicago- the town that Billy Sunday couldn't shut down!
On State Street, that great street, I just wanna say
They do things that they don't do on Broadway-
They have the time, the time of their life-
I saw a man and he danced with his wife in
Chicago, Chicago my home town!

What a song, What a singer! The Chairman of the Board, Old Blue Eyes, Frank.

Like Sinatra, Chicago is my adopted home-town. Baton Rouge, Louisiana is my favorite city in all the world, but Chicago is close at number two. Hot Springs, Arkansas is my other adopted home-town. I love these places and they are a part of me, inside me forever. No one can take away the experiences I've had in these great cities.



Baton Rouge

Coming across the Mississippi River on the "new bridge" just before dawn on my way from Hot Springs to Baton Rouge one time, I had such a sense of home wash over me. I've never felt any emotion before or since like that moment. The Capitol Building, the tallest in the United States, stood sentry just where it always had. The smoke from the thousands of smoke stacks at ExxonMobil, some that I even helped build, and the other petrochemical plants along the river signaled a familiar welcoming. Tiger Stadium and the P-MAC to the south were reminders of a religion deep within any southern Louisiana boy- LSU! Geaux Tigers!



Continuing down I-10 I saw the Hilton standing tall on College Drive. I made my way to the split and took I-12 east to O'neal Lane. Just a few more minutes and I would be home- 824 Hammond Manor Drive.


Hot Springs

In Hot Springs, Arkansas, mornings are truly divine. The mist and fog that settles in over the Ouachita Mountains envelopes everything in a sense of mystery and wonder. Taking a stroll down "Bath House Row" is a great way to spend a lazy afternoon and a treat for lovers of architecture and nature. The winding, monotonous drive on Hwy. 70 from Hot Springs to I-30 is a study in patience. The lakes offer opportunities for recreation galore. A gem of our nation's geographical landscape lies tucked away in the Arkansas foothills- Hot Springs.






Chicago



Chicago is the "City of Broad Shoulders." It is a working city, a blue-collar town. Polish and German, Greek and Italian, Hispanic and Asian all call Chicago home. The cuisine is world-class. The shopping is too. The architecture is a gift to the world. The first skyscrapers were built here. They were perfected here. The greats of architecture blessed Chicago with their talents: Daniel Burnham, John Root, William Holabird, William Le Baron Jenney, Mies van der Rohe, Louis Henri Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright. The lakefront is a paradise carved out alongside one of the biggest urban centers in the world. Grant Park and Millenium Park and Lincoln Park and Chicago's many other parks offer a respite from the hustle-bustle of city life. A great town, Chicago.