January 29, 2025: Damen Ave

The newest feature returns with a new Chicago street to talk about. Yes, we finally finished Western Ave; 6 separate posts on that bad boy! If there is any street that could try to stack up, it’s the closest main street to my house; I grew up 5 houses off Damen Ave. It’s 4 blocks east of Western Avenue; it’s 20 blocks west of State Street, which intersected with the street I lived on 20 blocks south of Madison Ave. 20 blocks south, 20 blocks west, is where I lived; let’s explore the first 20.

I want to start with Harry’s. It was a hamburger/hot dog stand that was located underneath the El. It was the place where we would pick up food from when my parents’ would go out and leave us money. It was the place where we spent many hours playing arcade games, including most memorably to me, Contra. They had the best hamburgers and hot dogs in the world as far as I was concerned when I was a kid. If we were going to “eat out”, and it wasn’t pizza, it was most definitely Harry’s. Of course, like many places from my childhood, it’s long gone; I think it’s a taco joint right now. But man… I can still picture the $20 bill left by my parents’ on the TV, grabbing it, crossing the street, walking into Harry’s, placing the order, and jumping on the arcade game; memories… good memories.

Damen Ave is also the street that runs along the west side of Harrison Park; I may have spent a few hours there… I would need to write a whole separate blog/feature on what went on at Harrison Park through my lifetime. Early memories include me and my siblings looking out the back porch window on the 2nd floor, where my grandmother lived, watching with binoculars, the 16 inch softball games that would take place there; can’t get much more Chicago than 16 inch softball. That was fun when we were young, until they built some daycare building right on the southeast corner of 19th and Damen; can’t see shit now.

Speaking of looking out windows, I had a window in my room on the 2nd floor, which was my first “move out” moment from the bedroom I shared with my brother and sister growing up. Yes, my bedroom was up there for three years before I really moved out, well, 2 blocks away… haha. But yeah, one night, I heard some of the guys hanging out on Damen Ave, and then I heard some “fireworks”… I peeped out the front window, and saw one of them slump to the ground; don’t know if he was OK. You see, this type of stuff didn’t make the news back then; there were no cameras everywhere you looked. There was a lot of “word on the street” type news that passed through the neighborhood back then…

I only dipped my toe in on Damen Avenue. Not sure if it’ll make the 6 “stories” that Western Avenue registered, but we’ll have at least a couple more. Let’s jump in the car and head south down Damen next.