E is For Elgin (Place)

Today I want to tell you quickly how my associations with the city of Elgin , Illinois have changed in the almost 40 years I have been travelling there.

It started when I needed braces when I was kid.  My orthodontist was in a town some 30 minutes away from where I lived called Elgin.  I didn't have any relatives in that town and to the best of my knowledge I had never visited it.  My orthodontist was in the tower building which is now on the national registry of historic buildings.

Tower Building, Elgin, Illinois.

After my adventures in orthodontia were over, I visited Elgin all of 3 times from the early eighties to 1997.  These were for 1) a lunch date with a Judson student, 2) A wedding (The reception was in the Laird Funeral Home of all places), and a camp reunion.

Then in 1997, I moved from South Carolina back to Illinois to court Amy.  I got a temp to perm job in Elgin and was there from July to October.  Shortly after that I got a job at a mortgage company and was there for almost 10 years.  While I was there I was given a 6 week assignment at one of our other facilities in Elgin.

In 2001,  We move to our current house which is between 10 and 15 minutes from Elgin.  We began to do more regular things there.  We visited churches, we visited their  library, our pediatrician's office was there.  But it wasn't until the past 5 or 6 years that we have become Elginated.  These days, I work in Elgin, our home school co-op meets in Elgin, we go to church in Elgin.  Last week I was at Elgin every day for work and then drove back there after dinner for the Imago film fest at Judson.  I spend more waking hours a week in Elgin than I do in my home town.  In a few weeks I will begin to spend more time on the bike paths and many of those are in Elgin.  

One thing we have not done is frequent restaurants in Elgin especially in the down town as they mostly open during business hours.  Elgin has a blue box cafe which has a Dr. Who motif that I want to take the kids too sometime soon.  

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D is For Dye

White Sox Homerun hitters from A.J. to Zeke


The A to Z Challenge is up to letter 

D is for Dye

It's also Six Word Saturday, My Six:
Jermaine "Win or Dye Trying" Dye

In the off-season between 2004 and 2005 Kenny Williams then GM of the team added different players to get the team to the next level.  Jermaine Dye who had been to the 1996 World Series with the Atlanta Braves as a rookie was a player  that Williams had added to the 2005 Sox.   The Sox Marketing campaign that year was win or die trying. 

Dye was a big reason the Sox won in 2005 and was the MVP of the World Series.  Dye  played 4 more years with the Sox and finished with 164 Home Runs for them.  He hit more home runs in 5 seasons with the Sox than he did in His 9 previous seasons elsewhere.  Dye is 7th on the all-time White Sox homer list.


Dye averaged 30 home runs for every 162 major league games he played.   His best 2 Home run totals for the Sox came in 2006  when he went yard  44 times and in 2008 with 34 round trippers.  If you dye Easter eggs tonight think of good old # 23 Jermaine Dye as you do so.  For more A to Z blogging click here.  For more Six Word Saturday click here.