Freeport, Illinois, first day

We looked around Freeport for the first time in 10 years.  My family moved here in 1949 just before school opened for me at Freeport High School.  We had no relatives here so there was no one we could relate to in family way since my mother moved away in 1992.  

Do you see that figure at the position of the "o" in Freeport?  Yes, this school has the most unusual mascot, one that is portable and may be taken to games and events.  A bakery years ago made pretzels which became the mascot of the high school.

I took the photo on the right from a yearbook dating to my time at high school.  Comments in the yearbook pointed out the tower with pride.  So Al set about photographing what has changed.  Except for some window changes, it is pretty much the same.  One thing greatly changed is guard desk at the entrance and one may walkabout the school unattended.

This is the home that Al lived in during high school.  It was a vacant lot while we rented a place nearby and then the house was constructed and purchased by my parents.  They continued to live there after Al had left for the US Navy, never to return to Freeport to live.

This is a view of the rented house.

This 1949 Plymouth with Al was in the same spot as the truck in the photo above.  

Across the alley from that house on Logan Street was a covered foundation, a little of which can be seen in the nearest corner of the house, and Wayne and Opal living within.  The next spring Wayne, a carpenter, began to build the upper part of the original house.  Al wandered over and became "part of the family".  Their son Jeff continued in the construction mode and still lives in the house.  He added the large section at the rear of the house.

Wayne, a World War 2 Navy veteran, lives in a home nearby with his daughter Marcia is living with him after a career with the Intel Corporation.  She is working on an IT project at the Freeport hospital.

Jeff and Mollie, current residents of the home.

Mollie, an artist, found a similar artist in Sue.  Mollie does decoration and upholstery of chairs, such as the one Sue is seated on, shared fabrics with Sue.

If you take a mule ride down into the Grand Canyon, you will meet Steve, the third member of the family who is head wrangler of the mule teams.

Here is Steve and you can view him on this NBC Today show video;

http://www.today.com/video/today/52295373/#52295373

Finally a little romance.  At the top of the waterfall in Krape Park in Freeport, Al proposed to Sue in 1961.  The park has changed very little over the years.