I received an email from classmates.com

Southside of Chicago 80th Woodlawn

Hi Curt,
I am from the class of 1954 and I believe that I remember your name. I had a friend in your class Ralph Meyers. I haven't read your book but it will be on my list. If you have depicted the neighborhood right then it will be a gem. Do you remember the brick house on 82nd street a few blocks from Avalon Park School? It had a high brick wall around the house. The family there were the Girvings. For some reason that sticks in my head. I was known as the fastes runner around. I won city championship for 11 year olds. Well just thought I'd drop a line.

Your family!

Hi Uncle Curt;
Wanted to say hi and to let you know that I have a copy of your book and will read it this summer. I love the pictures.

Chicago --Grew up at 76th & Rhodes av.

Great book--Played a lot of baseball at Grand Crossing & Av park. Went to 87th Street speed way a lot, We may have crossed paths at one time. It was a great time and place to grow up and you nailed it with this book. I lived about 3 blocks from the trick shop and the Rhodes theater. Thank You for the great read--David Barg

UK

You have to get this book it reads like a movie script...keep it up Curt!

South Chicago

Hi Curt,
I enjoyed reading your book and laughing at the tale you presented on
the Southside of Chicago. I was born in August 1939 and raised about 3
miles from your turf and fun places. We probably crossed paths since many
of your examples were in my daily routine. My parks were Trumbull,
Bessemer, and Calumet. Rainbow Beach was the spot for "chicks". As I
remember my success rate of even talking to a girl was pathetic. I
couldn't put an intelligent sentence together. I find that Chicago guys
match up with parks and schools. Bowen High School was my educational
base as a teenager.

Going to the Avalon on 79th was a big treat for my gang. It was outside
our territory but we loved the show.

I just wanted to thank you for painting a clear, fun, and nice picture of
your early years on the Southside. I wouldn't trade my first 22 years
roaming , laughing, and playing on the Southside. There is nothing like
this part of Chicago or the world.

Best,
Jack Ivancevich
South Chicago

P.S.

Curt,

Please feel free to post any of my comments you want to use. I bought
6 copies of your book and sent them to my siblings.

I heard about your book from a Mt. Carmel guy who sent out a note to
look for the book.

I write academic textbooks( Google--- John M. Ivancevich) so I enjoy
reading less dense and more fun books like your product.

Thanks,
Jack Ivancevich

dna

Chicago

The days of our growing up along Stony Island in the 8000 to 8600 blocks in the late 40s and early to mid 50s were wonderful, carefree and creatively super times. The steel mills were belllching out all the colors of the rainbow in blast furnace operations 24 seven 24 months of the year. Dodging the cars of Stony's 3 lanes each way to get to school as third graders made us ready for most every thing a kid our age had to handle except for grades, prayers, eating, work around the house or trying to catch the street car. But who cared about those things anyway when we could play 16 inch softball, ice skate, ice hockey, touch football and roller skate on the new smooth concrete streets, playing 'sewer to sewer' on 86th Place or St. Felicitas's school playground. Good job, Curt, you got it all.

hello . . .. i was just made aware of your book which will soon be on its way . . . . thank you in advance . . . i look forward to reading it with great pleasure and it was so kind of you to include me . . . . i marvel at anyone who has the patience and fortitude it takes to sit down and actually write a book . . . it takes everything i have in me each time i create one of my shows . . . but a book! well, that's the
real thing! so congratulations and may you have great success with it.
I love chicago and will share it with my accompanist who comes from there.
yours,
andrea marcovicci

Hi Curt;
You've got a wonderful book. Enjoyed reading it. Really liked all the pictures. You may have been a kool cat, but I would say also a very lucky one. You sure have used a bunch of your cat nine lives.
Bet you wish you still had the T-bird. I know I would.
Liked the Luther bits too.
Good luck, Rick

Plymouth, Massachusetts

Hi Curt,
Here is my take on your book:
Southside Kid is a wonderful, warm and delightful book of nostalgia on the back streets of Chicago. From someone who has never been to Chicago it gave me a beautiful picture of the community Curt lived in and much of it criss crossed my own humble upbringing in a small community in Western Massachusetts. A great read and highly recommended for all ages to trace their own background. I'm proud to say I'm a friend. Len Desautels- Retired Schoolteacher

A nice story and so compelling. I feel that I now know all of the folks that you talked about in this easy-going little story.
I'm quite sure that I'll be flipping through these pages again and again. I miss those days so much. THANKS!