My parents (Leo and Julia Studlo) lovingly cared for their home on Midway Drive, in Willowbrook, Illinois for 18 years. Much has changed in the old neighborhood since the family sold it around 1973. There are now sidewalks, ditches along the street are gone (I assume there are now storm sewers) and the huge field where we spent countless hours playing, has been developed into a park.
The property has sold several times since. When last we saw it several years ago, we were in town for a multi-year high school reunion and Tom and I visited the old place with sister, Sharon. There was a man outside and, having safety in numbers, we boldly went where we hadn’t been in years. The man had recently purchased the property and was planning to fix it up. (I found the purchase information on zillow.com and the now 1949 sq. ft., 3 bedroom, 1 bath home on 2.3 acres, was purchased for $550,000. I’m sure most of the value was in the land itself.) The new owner kindly allowed us inside.
It was in a bad state of disrepair. Although a previous owner built a very large “great room” addition, nothing had changed in the original part of the house. The roof had leaked and the 3rd floor bedroom had water damage, the kitchen cabinets, while fine in 1955, looked shabby and the garage my dad built also was in bad shape. Very, sad.
One of the interim owners installed a wooden picket-style fence with red brick uprights across the front of the property.
In light of recent storms here in southern Wisconsin, (There has been much flooding as the rainfall has been as much as 12” in a 24-hour period in some places. Yesterday, as we received 4.6” in about 6 hours) I am reminded a particular of a storm when I was a kid. We watched as the water edged closer and closer to our house on Midway. Much like it did here, yesterday.
We lived at the bottom of what seemed, at that time, a huge hill. I remember the ditch in front of the house overflowing it’s banks. The house was maybe 75 ft. from the ditch and I would say the water came within 20-25 ft. of the house, maybe closer. For an innocent kid, it was all very exciting. Not so for my parents, Dad in particular. I remember the family gathered in the living room looking out the big window and with each flash of lightening we could see the water encroaching on our home . . . and my Dad praying.
I can’t say for sure if we had water in the basement that time or not. We relied on our sump pump to keep the water at bay. I know we did have water in the basement at least one time due to a power outage.
