This journal belongs to Tilda Ravenstein.
14 June 1985
Today was the day my family and I moved into our new house.
The car ride here seemed like it went on for ages. Mother told me that it would be a 2 hour drive from Chicago, but it could have easily been 4 or 5. I was stuck in the back of our old station wagon with my older brother Evan, who would not stop talking about his football team the entire time. He went on and on about what a mess his old middle school team would be without him, and I just had to watch the skyscrapers fade into houses into cornfields through the window as they passed by.
Our old house was tiny and had a tiny yard out front, squashed between identical tiny houses and tiny yards. The inside was tight but cozy, and all of my best friends lived on my block. I went to school at Lemont Elementary, which was just a 5-minute walk from the house. Evan went to Kennedy Junior High, which was on the other side of our neighborhood.
I would give anything to go back to Chicago. The new house is just two doors down from the busiest new highway around, and I can't get a wink of sleep. There's always autos roaring right by my house at night.
Our new yard is three times the size of our old one, and it feels like the grass is empty and is separating me from the neighbors. The house itself seems too stretched out. Father says that it is the same size as the old place- it really doesn't feel like it, though.
My father told us he had to move to this new town, "Oswego", or something like that, for his new job. I don't see why. There are many more jobs in Chicago than in this miserable place.
The town itself is just a small downtown area with houses and stores surrounded by endless cornfields. The new house is just on the edge of the downtown area and there's a big school across the street that looks like a factory. Evan says it's the high school.
The elementary school I will be going to is just down the street from the high school. It's small, but still bigger than Lemont. Evan's new school is a few blocks away; Thompson Junior High or something like that.
I think Oswego is confusing and I don't think I'm going to make any friends here. For now, I need to unpack my things, but I don't think I have enough things to fill my new room.