A writer comes home to ever-changing South Shore to find the middle class disappearing
CHICAGO - Carlo Rotella returned to his old neighborhood the other day, another silent Saturday morning in South Shore, the kind of day when the clang of a passing train is the only clamor. The occasion for the visit was his latest book, a portrait of South Shore, "The World is Always Coming to an End: Pulling Together and Apart in a Chicago Neighborhood." He was in town for readings and interviews; he grew up here but moved away in 1982. Since then, Rotella had become a well-known magazine writer and an American Studies professor at Boston College. But he was mostly a stranger here now.
He sat in front of his childhood home on Oglesby Avenue, in a rental car that stood out for two reasons: It had Texas plates, and was just generic enough to appear suspicious.
Darryl Ingram, who has lived in Rotella's childhood home for 26 years, noticed the car. And his wife, Tonia, noticed, too. "Who's that?" she asked. "I'm watching ... " Darryl said.
"It's probably Carlo," Tonia said.
"No way it's Carlo," Darryl said. He went to the basement, and when he returned, Rotella and I were standing on the sidewalk, talking. Darryl called to his wife: "It's Carlo."
Darryl opened a window and boomed: "Hey! I hope you got my book with you!"
"Are you on a
