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Spending Summer Evenings On a Chicago Stoop  By Cynthia Mercati
/ July 28, 1994  Grandma's wicker chair was always the first
sign of summer in our house. "Outside," she would command on
that first night of warm weather in Chicago. Obligingly, I would
pick up the chair and move it. This was before VCR's, of course,
and before video games.  Skip to next paragraph  Grandma still
baked bread, made borscht, and did the housework. Grandma loved
to work - but 80-plus years of it had made her enjoy sitting
almost as much. From June through August, she never missed a
night on the stoop. And neither did the neighbors.  Across the
street, men in T-shirts would be grouped around a Chevrolet. The
hood would be up, and the men would be arguing about the best
way to fix a transmission, put in a spark plug, or catch a fish.
They would argue about anything.  The Martinellis lived kitty-
corner from us and they argued, too. Their fights were loud, but
not long, and alwa