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Birmingham twinned with Chicago

  • Thread starter Thread starter Wendy
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Wendy

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I must admit I did not realise until last week that Birmingham was twinned with Chicago. My son is there at the moment working. He said it's a brilliant place although where he is working is about an hours drive away. This weekend he booked out of his hotel and booked in one 'down town' for the weekend. He is realy enjoying it. I told him he is treading in his grandfathers footsteps as my father went there in 1950 to the first world trade fair. Here is a photo of the trade stand

Smith_Bros_and_Webb.jpg
 
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Re: Birmingham twinned with Chicargo

Wendy,The twinning of Brum and Chicago,is new to me as well,didn't know about that trade fair either.
Just goes to show,Brummies and Made in Birmingham,get everywhere.
Having seen so many "Made in Birmingham"plates in so many unlikely places,I never cease to wonder how far we have reached out in the world.:)
 
Re: Birmingham twinned with Chicargo

Thanks for posting about Brum being twinned with Chicago. Chicago is "Convention City" in the USA. Or at least used to be since Las Vegas is very popular these days. My room mate in Toronto went to live in Chicago in 1966 and I went to visit her for a couple of weeks in 1967. I fell in love with Chicago and started taking out papers to move there. It was a long process and by the time I had just about received my visa, political troubles were beginning there. My parents, especially my Father, didn't want me to go. Only place at that time that they didn't agree with me moving to. I didn't go; friend Doreen who hated the very cold winters and moved to Florida where she lives today.

I have wonderful memories of Chicago and especially visiting the site of the famous St. Valentine's Day Massacre which took place on February 14, 1929. https://www.hauntedhouses.com/states/il/saint_valentines_day_massacre.cfm Here are a couple of photos of myself and Doreen visiting 2122 N.Clark Street. Wendy, your father must have seen a very different Chicago to the present city.
Doreen and I imagined every Funeral Parlour we saw had gang connections, etc. Great times.
 
Re: Birmingham twinned with Chicargo

Love the photos Jennyann. I enjoy your stories of the pioneering you as a young girl. You were braver than I was in those days. I only came into my own with the help of Brian, he had dreams too and we followed them together.
 
Re: Birmingham twinned with Chicargo

Hi Di: You were lucky to find your dearest Brian and have your adventures together. I thought I had found my soul mate when I was
in my late teens but sadly it didn't work out. It took many years before I found my real soul mate.
 
Re: Birmingham twinned with Chicargo

What wonderful adventures you both must have had. Personally I haven't done a lot a bit of a home bird I'm afraid. I love reading the adventures on the forum especially those who emigrated very brave in my opinion! I will try and find some photo's of my Dad's visit to Chicago.
 
Wendy, what a lovely old photo of a 'bit of Birmingham' in Chicago. Did your dad go by ship or plane? Flying wasn't really very common in 1950 was it?
Polly
 
Sorry I only just found your reply Polly. Dad went to America on the Queen Mary he spent one night in New York and then on to Chicago. He travelled home on a ship named the El De France........I am unsure if that is how it was spelt.
 
Hi Wendy: By all accounts the liner the Ile de France was a very luxurious ship. The first liner of its type of have Art Deco design. You can read about her on this Wikipedi site. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Ile_de_ and https://www.ocean-liners.com/ships/ile.asp where there are some photos of her. On the Wikipedi page I was very glad to see that further down in the descriptions was a mention of the 9th Floor restaurant in the famous Eaton's Department Store in Montreal. Lady Eaton named the restaurant the Ile de France, as the whole restaurant was designed as a tribute to the decor of the liner itself. Apparently, Lady Eaton had made a crossing on the Ille de France and was very impressed with the decor on board. I was lucky enough to go to lunch on my first day in Canada in the 9th floor restaurant as it was known as, in July 1963 after my arrival in Montreal on board the"Empress of Britain". Eaton's closed all their Department stores in Canada in 1999 and the 9th floor is a heritage possession as it is so beautifully decorated as was the liner the Il de France. Your Father certainly travelled in style on this ship.
 
I Didn,t know myself that we was twinned with chico, you learn some think every day don,t you
but its a pity we have not got there nice people over here
but i surpose we are half way there
we have got the big tall buildings like them . we have got the gangsters , and we have got the guns ,
and we have got pimps. our democratic system is moving that way , now brum wants its own guvenor to run
the place ou schools are becoming accadiums , so why not lets twinn with them ,,
wendy it was nice to hear about your son lets hope he can bring some nice people over
and show our people a thing of decencie
best wishes astonian ;;;;
 
Jenny that is so interesting. I think I have a photo of the ship I will have a look. It's also interesting about the art deco. I have a photo of my father in the bar (must run in the family) of the Sherman Hotel Chicago the cover of the photo is very art deco.
 
I think Chicago was a canning centre in days gone bye . All those cattle roaming the range, taken on cattle drives,loaded onto trains to be slaughtered and processed into tins of corn beef. I have not seen " produce of USA" stamped on a corn beef tin for ages. Must be ground down for burgers these days.
 
Arkrite said:
I think Chicago was a canning centre in days gone bye . All those cattle roaming the range, taken on cattle drives,loaded onto trains to be slaughtered and processed into tins of corn beef. I have not seen " produce of USA" stamped on a corn beef tin for ages. Must be ground down for burgers these days.
Click to expand...
The American Civil War saw stockyards set up - the troops needed supplies by rail. Abilene, Kansas became a major distribution place. In 1881 refrigerated (ice blocks) railroad cars made for better shipping as carcases weighed a lot less than live animals and did not need to be fed and watered. The depression saw major concentration stockyards at Chicago and Omaha plus other set ups in large cities of the Mid West.
Chicago closed down at the beginning of the 1970's, Omaha later in the nineties. Much processing was moved to other areas such as Mexico. (cheap labour).
 
Smudger said:
Electric chairs.
I`ve been having a lot of muscular pain & stiffness lately which is getting steadily worse, so i decided to treat myself to a electric riser/recline. I found one that i liked & the salesman said i could get the vat knocked off if i was disabled, which i`m not but my wife is. No problem said the salesman, your wife can buy it for you. So yippee i got £83 knocked off the price. I shall spend half of it on whisky & wild women, & the other half i shall waste. I just hope my wife doesn`t throw a bucket of water over me when i`m on my electric chair.:p OOPS, posted this in the wrong place, i`ve tried deleting it but it didn`t work:rolleyes:
Click to expand...
I notice you never mention 'sigareetes'.
 
Wendy said:
I must admit I did not realise until last week that Birmingham was twinned with Chicago. My son is there at the moment working. He said it's a brilliant place although where he is working is about an hours drive away. This weekend he booked out of his hotel and booked in one 'down town' for the weekend. He is realy enjoying it. I told him he is treading in his grandfathers footsteps as my father went there in 1950 to the first world trade fair. Here is a photo of the trade stand

Smith_Bros_and_Webb.jpg
Click to expand...

Wendy only just come across your post about the twinning with Chicago , as much as I hate to admit it it is even moreso akin to Chicago nowadays . what with all the shootings and knifings . Chicago must have the worst record for homicide out of all the states
 
I'm never very happy about these 'twinnings' to me they're seem to be just an excuse for councillors' to go on jollies at the expense of the taxpayer.
 
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