So there was a murder at my house. Not the house I live in now, but the one I grew up in, in Country Club Hills, IL. It's a suburb of Chicago where I57 & I80 cross. My family bought the house new, and I lived there from when I was 6 until after I went to college. My parents moved out when I was a sophmore at U of I, when the house was dangerous to live in. Not the neighborhood mind you, but the house was splitting in half and sinking due to alleged mafia-connected builders building a big house over an unsupported storm sewer (I wish I was kidding here).
When I heard of this story from my mom late Sunday night, who heard it from my grammar-school friend's mom who still lives across the backyard, it was creepy. When I started lunch today, I Googled "18049 Edwards", the address, and got a number of hits:
Fox News Chicago
WBBM
Sun-Times
CBS2 Chicago
The above embedded link comes from the Fox link [first try at embedding videos]
When I saw the still of the old house in the video window, even before I hit the play button, I audibly gasped. There's the old house. There's the old damn shed my dad loved more than my mom. There's the stairs, the home-base for countless games of Ghost in the Graveyard (and other dubious activities) with my best friends growing up, Armando & Aidita. And there's that blood on the drive.....
What made it even creepier was that I actually talked to the murderer and the dad when I was in town a couple summers ago for a grammar-school reunion. We stopped by the house, and I awkwardly asked at the front door if they minded if I went around and filmed the house as I grew up there. I asked nicely, first to the son, and then the dad. Persmission denied, but they weren't nasty about it. I knew going in it was an odd request, and chances are they might say no. But I thought it worth a try. I still vividly remember the deceased man's face, as he looked at me a tad puzzled at my request. Apparently he was bothered and may have thought I was a reporter, as gang symbols were sprayed on the back of the house the night before, right underneath my old bedroom window.
This is surreal. My old house on regional news and available for everyone on the internet to see. I spent my formnative years there, both the good times and the weird times. I had a great friend, the aforementioned Armando, and while I got more out of that friendship than he, it's just fookin' weird to think of plenty of great memories growing up there and see a murder there as well. Very surreal indeed........
