Scenes from a hometown: Coming home

This photo was taken about a week before the riverwalk and a refurbished Walton Island opened to the public in 2001. While chatting with the couple on the overlook, I learned that they had come here on this summer evening to reminisce about growing up in Elgin and playing along the river in about the same spot they were now, and how much things had changed over the years. Their revisited memories took place under the gaze of the newly installed Pioneer Family Memorial statue.

I wonder why that first group of people chose to stop at this particular spot on the Fox River and set up their home. That decision started a chain of events that would create what is now the city of Elgin, Illinois. What did they see in this place?

What they saw might be very similar to what I saw ten years ago when I moved to Elgin – a place of opportunity for myself and my family. That decision put into place a series of events that have forever impacted me, my wife and our kids. We’ll never be the same for having moved here.

I suppose the same could be said no matter where we would have chosen to move. But I do know that we all have taken advantage of opportunities, big and small, that we never would have had in any of our former home towns.

What’s your connection to your home town?

Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2005 James Jordan.