It#039;s not the best claim to fame
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, April 29, 2003
I am in Chicago this week with two of my sisters. We are staying with my oldest brother's daughter, Megan O'Leary. She works for a virtual reality company. The weather has been gorgeous and I have done a lot of walking.
Megan lives right next to Wrigley Field. The apartments that are across from Wrigley Field have bleachers set up on the roofs to get a bird's-eye view of the game.
This is my second trip to Chicago. I came here four years ago for an art trip though Riverland and stayed downtown at the Hyatt Hotel. It is a more relaxing trip this time and I am in the neighborhoods of what my niece calls the "real" Chicago. The city is full of young people in their 20s and many don't have cars, but rely on public transportation to get around.
This weekend the streets were filled with people running and roller blading and on bicycles. It is so great that it is finally warming up. I'm sure the Mill Pond has a stream of people coming out of the woodwork after the winter and taking in fresh air and exercising.
Sunday night I went to see the play "The Lion King" at the Cadillac Palace.
It is a beautiful theater with ornate carvings and chandeliers on the ceiling. I thought that we are so fortunate to have an equally beautiful and ornate theater like the Paramount in Austin.
Today my sister Kate and I are going to a cemetery where wellknown people like Mayor Daley and people that perished in the Great Chicago Fire of the 1870s are buried. My maiden name is O'Leary and I have heard stories about the Great Chicago Fire all my life. The story goes that the fire was started when a lantern was knocked over in Mrs. O'Leary's barn. Her neighbor, O'Sullivan, was stealing milk at night from her cow and the cow kicked the lantern over, which started the fire. Most of the buildings in Chicago were made of wood and the blaze spread quickly. Half the population of Chicago perished in the fire. Mrs. O'Leary was exonerated from the fire and O'Sullivan was responsible for the disaster. Megan told me that where the world-famous shopping area on Michigan Avenue runs is where the shoreline for Lake Michigan used to start.
Now the shoreline is several blocks from Michigan Avenue. The burnt buildings of old Chicago were dumped on the former shoreline and filled with dirt.
Now, large buildings and Lake Shore Drive are built on this landfill from the fire.
My grandfather Ed O'Leary used to take train trips to Chicago back in the 1920s and '30s. He met two of Mrs. O'Leary's sons. My grandfather tracked down the lineage of how he was distantly related to this O'Leary branch. We were related and came from the same county in Ireland. So my claim to fame is how my family was connected in supposedly destroying Chicago in the 1870s.
On a final note, I became a grandmother last week. My grandson, Thomas Michael Donnelly was born April 21. He weighed 7 pounds 8 1/2 ounces. His mother and father are thrilled, as is the whole family.
Life goes on.
Sheila Donnelly can be reached at 434-2233 or by e-mail at :mailto:newsroon@austindailyherald.com