Is it wrong for me to "miss" Illinois?

[jaybird2001wi]

It's been nearly a year since I finished up a news internship in Waukegan, Ill. and I am starting to miss Lake County, Ill a lot. Right towards the end of my internship, I started feeling a great familiarity and comfort for the area. I knew all of the County Routes (Highways for us Wisconsinites) and knew where each of them lead to in regards to villages and townships.

I also started having great pride in the area even though some were not exactly "safe" and I did have to report on quite a few homicides as a news reporter, but it made me feel good to give the County Coroner a call on his personal cell phone every morning before work just to get the news or updates of anything that occurred in the wee hours of the morning. Me and Coroner began to have a nice professional relationship as I also began having good professional rapports with Police and Fire Chiefs of Villages, Cities and Townships.

I have been everywhere in Lake County (Zion, Wauconda, Grayslake, Libertyville, Mundelein, Lake Zurich, Buffalo Grove, Vernon Hills, Lake Forest, Antioch) and even covered a high school basketball game just three blocks west of Wrigley Field and also drove to Springfield, Ill. for a trial.

If I had a choice for my next professional journalism assignment, I wouldn't be opposed to going back to Illinois.

 

Does anyone have any similar stories where they became hooked on a community where they interned?

[thebruce44]

If you "miss" Waukegan and Zion, then yes...there is something wrong with you.

 

This is coming from someone who lived in Lake Villa for 2 years and finally got out of that area.

[homer]

Waukegan is like Kenosha....except more south.

[sbrylski]

Don't you know why all the trees in Wisconsin lean towards the south?

 

Because Illinois sucks, that's why.

[logan82]

Yes, it is wrong of you to miss Illinois. I am sure you will develope those same types of close relationships with people at your next job. All the Illinios people come to Wisconsin for vacation because it is better than Illinois.

[berniebrewer4life]

Did you enjoy living there? If so, then there is nothing wrong with missing the place. Anybody who says you shouldn't miss a place just because it's illinois(and not off of your own experiences there) seems to have a bit of an inferiority complex, if you ask me.

[Chio151]

Waukegan is like Kenosha....except more south.

 

 

Since everytime I head to the Chicagoland area I come back feeling ill, I can't sense what your feeling. That said, I think we make connections to any place we live and feel comfortable. Heck, if you survived a stay in Gary, you'd probably miss it briefly -- until you shed the contaminated layers of skin that were scrambling your brain.

[homer]

"Since everytime I head to the Chicagoland area I come back feeling ill,"

 

That's called a hangover. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[Fatter than Joey]

Is it wrong for me to "miss" Illinois?

 

Yeah, it's wrong to miss Illinois. It would be like that shipwrecked Englishman missing The Island of Dr. Moreau

[brewers19]

I spent the first 18 years of my life living in the Chicago area and, despite what many Wisconsin people might want you to think, it's really a nice city and surrounding area. Waukegan falls safely within Chicagoland, and there's nothing wrong with having enjoyed yourself and missing it. On the other hand, the rest of Illinois is a vast wasteland and I'd feel thoroughly concerned for anyone who felt nostalgic for it. But as a whole, I'd say Wisconsin is a nicer state.

[valpocrewsader]

With an ICBM? Yes, work on your aim.

[milwaukeesportsfan]

I hate everything about Illinois. Since this is a family website, that's all I have.

 

Edit: I mispoke. Illinois does have one redeeming quality. You can buy Fat Tire there.

[NastyTwig]

Do other states have arch enemies, or is it just us?

[jaybird2001wi]

I didn't live in Waukegan. I just commuted there for my internship for the Lake County News-Sun every morning (essential 9-5 job) from my hometown of Racine. But there is a lot of wasteland. I seem to remember seeing no scenery at all when I made a 6 hour drive to Springfield along I-55 and there was nothing between Chicago and Springfield and I felt like I was in Kansas.

But I guess I miss it because of the relative news value. I am fortunate enough to get Chicago TV stations off Time Warner since I live in Racine and I am still fascinated by any news that occurs within the areas where I covered news.

If anyone remembers the "Burger King homicide" in Lindenhurst about a year ago that involved the victim being from Trevor, Wis. I helped with the team coverage by making a trek to Trevor to interview townspeople about the murder.

The best part about my internship was that I didn't have to pay tolls (I 'borrowed' some coworkers' I-passes at times when I needed it the most). But Lake County is extremely diverse. At one end, you get the total ghetto of Zion and Waukegan and also North Chicago but at the other end, you got Lake Forest (extremely affluent city). You also got farm towns like Wauconda and Antioch.

I remember one time I got lost on I-290 on my way back to Waukegan from Glen Ellyn following a high school basketball game. Glen Ellyn is the dumbest city I ever been to because all of the street signs are painted on wooden polls and you can not even see the names of streets when it is dark out. I spent a half hour circling the area and somehow ended up in Wheaton and then got off the wrong exit along 290. Needless to say, it took me an hour just get out of the area.

[thebruce44]

If anyone remembers the "Burger King homicide" in Lindenhurst about a year ago that involved the victim being from Trevor, Wis. I helped with the team coverage

 

I guess we just had different experiences working/living in that area. A stabbing two blocks from my apartment door freaked me out while it was something "interesting" for a journalist to work on (I don't mean for that to sound condescending or bad, just that it was probably good experience for you).

 

Add in the horrific traffic at every intersection on every County Route, and I was happy to move to Cook County. Don't get me wrong, Chicago is great...but Lake County (especially the Gurnee/Waukegan area) just represents everything wrong with quality of life and poor government to me. I would never want to live there again or raise a family there. Just my two cents.

[jaybird2001wi]

Yeah, the County Routes in Lake County can get pretty congested, especially Routes 132 and 21. There also seems to be a lot of accidents on Rt 173 on the State line and I have reported on a few fatalities on the Intersection of Rt. 41 and 173.

This may be a bit controversial of me to say, but it seems like the Forest Preserves around Lake County became a total breeding ground for the dumping of bodies after homicides. It wouldn't surprise me if they found more if Park Rangers, etc. were looking a lot harder, especially in the Zion/Wadsworth area. Those preserves have always been eerily quiet and with no snowmobiling activity during the winter months.

The office were I was working was on Delany Road on Sunset Dr. and was within minutes of Gurnee Mills Mall.

I am familiar with Lake Villa because I got sent there a few times to pick up police reports.

Here are my top crime towns in Lake County in my mind:

1) Antioch (a place where Wisconsinites and Illinois people meet to make drug transactions)

2) Zion (I have been in the seedier neighborhoods of the City)

3) Waukegan (nuff said)

4) Round Lake areas (No offense to anyone who knows or is related to people like this, but there are a lot of mobile homes in this region)

5) North Chicago

6) Mundelein (wannabe teen gangsters who create stupid trouble in schools)

7) Deerfield (there has been an alarming trend of this "affluent" community having more and more problems with drugs and there have been three deaths of former and current high schoolers of the school due to alcohol and drugs within the last year and not to mention the death of former Bears' defensive back Shaun Gayle's pregnant girlfriend.)

[RockCoCougars]

Gotta love Zion. It's the hometown of Gary Coleman. That said, for missing Illinois, I have to shoot you a "wa chu talkin bout"?

[homer]

I think Gray's Lake is a neat little town. Reminded me of northern WI.....but without the accent. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif