In my Dec. 11 column, I shared my warm feelings about the nice folks in Ashland, Wis., a small town on the banks of Lake Superior. But I failed to mention my visit to the local doctor. After he wrote the prescription for what ailed me, he asked how I was otherwise. "Old and fat" was my response. He smiled and then explained he has an 86-year-old patient, then paused: "She lives with her mother, who is 106." Hardy folks up in the Northland. I didn't ask if the mother was out deer hunting.

Then there's life in the big city, life as I remember it growing up on the South Side of Chicago.

For more than 50 years, Garrett Popcorn has been a Chicago tradition, a mouth-watering treat. The caramel crisp and cheese corn mix is our favorite. And every year we order a couple of gallons for our grandkids. But for some reason this year I had a difficult time ordering online, so I called them. A very nice young woman answered and was most helpful. Turns out she was also from the South Side. I volunteered that the South Side was a great place to grow up and she surprised me with her response: "You're the first person I've ever heard say that." That really threw me for a loop, but my growing-up experience was long ago, since I graduated from high school 55 years ago.

My guess is that life, in many big towns in this great land, is not what it once was. I assume that in my old neighborhood, the parents who live there now have the same dreams for their children's future as our parents had for us in our day. Five or so years ago, when we drove around the old neighborhood, the two-flats and apartments were well cared for, but there was one difference. Many of the homes now had bars on the windows and there were high fences everywhere. I got the feeling that families live in fear, afraid of the drug pushers and gangbangers around them. It's a different kind of terrorism, in the neighborhoods right here in the homeland. A sad day for us all.

When Frank isn't recalling fond memories of what life once was in the streets of the big city, he can be reached at fburge@cmp.com.