Don't disturb the snowflakes...

Thoughts on my former hometown, and the the wonderful place I live now.

(Image is of the rear of a light blue Prius, festooned with bumper stickers expressing support for Black Lives Matter, Ukraine, Trans Kids, the LGBTQIA community, and love for my heart’s home, Oregon)

Well, it finally happened. I've been here for 1 year and 8 months, and for the very first time it seems I upset a delicate little snowflake.

I went to the Bourbonnais Aldi. For those of you who don't know, Bourbonnais is where I was born and raised, and we NEVER went into Kankakee except to see the fireworks on the 4th. It was DANGEROUS in Kankakee. I mean, all the most big gorgeous beautiful wealthy people homes were along the river over there, but the rest of Kankakee, well, roll up your windows and lock your doors. There are Black People there, you see. Hispanic people, too. Kankakee is to Bourbonnais as Gresham is to Portland proper. It's the "other". It's dangerous. Crime and stuff.

Some things don't change. Bourbonnais continues to be a bastion of whiteness, and it is *the* place to live if you want your little white children to have perfect little white lives, unsullied by color of any kind. Plus, the behemoth Olivet Nazarene College is there, and it owns the town. Truly. There aren't any of those pesky weed dispensaries in Bourbonnais thanks to Olivet, because you know how weed shops just invite crime. (Can you hear my eyes rolling?) White people SO want to live in Bourbonnais that they will pay top dollar for a house there, even if it's a ramshackle little 3-bedroom, 900 square foot little house built on a slab, like the one I grew up in. Maybe I'm being harsh, but I don't think so.

Meanwhile, I've lived here in beautiful, wonderful West Kankakee since I got to Illinois, and I have had neighbors of all colors, including white ones (who, sadly, seem to be pro-white, tRump-supporting folk). But we all coexist. The neighborhoods feel perfectly safe to me. I love walking through the area. I don't hesitate to walk at night or before the sun comes up.

(Edited to say I am very happy to report that things in Bourbonnais are slowly changing; that there are plenty of people fighting the good fight to make it a more open-minded, accepting, and thoughtful place - bless them).

After living in one of the worst eastside neighborhoods in Portland - NE 181st and Halsey (on the border of Gresham), where every night is loud drunken brawls and the fun game of 'is it gunfire, or car backfire?', being here in Kankakee in this bucolic neighborhood near the peaceful Kankakee River felt like I was back in the Hawthorne district, only with fewer white people, and fewer houseless people. (Man, the people in Bourbonnais would be appalled beyond measure if they had even a fraction of the houseless folk that Portland has.)

There are plenty of people in Portland who would adore this neighborhood of mine. Kankakee has grown and is thriving... we have a farmer's market on Saturdays (which I am so excited will soon be open again for the summer!). My tRump-loving, loud muscle car owning neighbors behind me always smile and say hi and chat. My next door neighbors on one side are in a rental, and smoke a lot of weed, and I love them. Beautiful young hippies they are, and they like me, too. I'm the crazy old hippie stoner lady. Across the street are a gay male couple with a son, and they proudly fly their progress pride flag, as do I. I have never had a problem. Ever. My little Prius is well-coated with bumper stickers supporting everything that Bourbonnais seems to be against, as you can see. My little car is very Portland, and god knows I don't want to offend the delicate sensibilities of the Bourbonnais White Folk.

So I avoid it as much as I can. For one thing it's far away (it sounds ridiculous, it takes five minutes or less, but distance and traffic are different here: it would take 20 minutes to get this far in Portland but yet somehow Bourbonnais seems so much further away) and for another, nearly everything I want or need is right here in Kankakee. I only need to go up to the Bourbonnais area for the dentist, pass through it on the way to the weed shop in the more liberal city of Bradley next door, and the UPS store. Today I had to do an Amazon return (yes I use Amazon, but when in Rome… I also shop at Walmart on occasion, forgive me), and figured while I was up that way, I would stop at an Aldi, see what they had.

Side note for Portlanders: I'm not sure how to describe Aldi. It's like the old "Food Valu" was. It started as a generic food store in the 70s I think, where 'generic' was kind of a new buzzword, and much more extreme than it is now. The canned goods, for example, were all labeled with a white label, with block letters stating what was inside. "GREEN BEANS" or "PEACHES" or whatever. Now it's more like a small grocery store that has a variety of products, but you may never find what you get there again, because it changes. Aldi is beloved around here... even though you have to bag your own groceries (gasp). And there is one in Bourbonnais, across the way from the one and only Goodwill in the area. I have a Goodwill story too, for another time.

Anyhoo, I pulled into the Aldi parking lot and chose a spot pretty close to the doors, which is unusual for me, but I'm trying to rest my knee today. Normally I park on the far back edge of whatever parking lot I'm at - partly for the little bit of exercise, but also because it's less likely my car will draw attention to itself. Today, however, I was right in that front row of cars. As I pulled into the spot, one of my favorite songs was on, so I just sat in the car to finish listening, as one does. I saw movement in my rearview and a white pickup was behind my car, paused. (I'm not kidding when I say every fourth car in this area is a white pickup truck). I figured it was just waiting for someone to pull out of a spot. But a few seconds later it was still there. And still there. I got the sense there might be some trouble, so I just stayed in my car, waiting. The song ended, and the white pickup slowly moved past me, only to circle the end of the row and come past the front of my car. I had no car in front of me, so I had a great view of the 40-something man with dark hair and a big mustache, as he drove past slowly, his face full of menace and hatred. He kept glaring until he was out of my sight, and I made sure he pulled onto the road before getting out of my car.

Because of my stickers.

It's kind of a miracle that it's taken this long for anyone to react to my stickers in a negative way. I've actually gotten a lot of compliments on them - because here in Kankakee, the LGBTQIA+ community is welcomed and appreciated, applauded and given accolades for community service. Here in Kankakee, you are safe. You are safe to walk around carrying a doll because you lost your children in a fire and everyone knows who you are, and they are gentle about you. Here in Kankakee you can leave your bike lying in the front yard after riding it around the neighborhood without a helmet with some other kids from the block - nobody is gonna mess with it. Here in Kankakee you can be a man who walks around carrying a giant rose like the kind you win at a carnival, smiling and just spreading love and joy, and people will not only honk in appreciation, they will find out your name and address and send you money for being such a joyful person in this world. Here in Kankakee, I am safe.

But a word of warning if you venture into Bourbonnais: roll up your windows and lock the doors.