Grateful for the freedoms we have

By Peggy Zabicki

Your correspondent in West Lawn

3633 W. 60th Place • (773) 504-9327

Happy Birthday USA! I am so grateful for the freedom we have in our wonderful country.

I hope those who choose to celebrate our freedom by lighting illegal fireworks will be arrested by our police, who I hope will have the freedom to do their jobs.

Did you know that some gangs obtain illegal fireworks and set them off simply to mask the sound of the guns they use to shoot rival gang members? Just wanted to share that fact with you.

Enough with the bad news. Here’s some good news about our neighborhood. Many of our neighborhood schools offer excellent pre-school classes.

Two of them have been recommended to me by West Lawn residents. The first is St. Nicholas of Tolentine, 3741 W. 62nd St. Call them at (773) 735-0772. The second is Queen of the Universe, 7130 S. Hamlin. Call them at (773) 582-4266. If you can recommend other schools in West Lawn with excellent pre-schools, let me know. I’ll be sure to share your information.

Lee School, 6448 S. Tripp, is participating in a free lunch program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture called Lunch Stop. This program provides free lunch on weekdays for all children up to age 18 years. The program started on June 27 and will continue until Aug. 12. If you need more information, call 800-359-2163 or visit cps.edu/mealsites.

Envision Community Services will be sponsoring a clean up at West Lawn Park, 4233 W. 65th St., on Saturday, July 16. All are invited to join in and help clean up our neighborhood. The event will start at 9 a.m. and run for two hours. This is a great activity for parents and kids. Also, if anyone has volunteer service hours to fill, Envision will provide participants the paperwork needed for that. All clean up supplies will be provided.

How’s your garden growing? I don’t have the garden I used to have, but I do have a few potted plants on my front porch. When my kids were little, we used to grow tomatoes and green beans and other veggies. We grew enough to enjoy not only during the late summer and early fall, but all through the winter. The kids would pick them and I would blanch and freeze them in zip lock freezer bags. By the time I used the last of them, spring would arrive, and it was time to plant another batch using the seeds I gathered from the previous crops.

We also planted zinnias and marigolds. We saved the seeds in the fall and planted those the following spring.

A couple of weeks ago, I came across an envelope of marigold seeds I had saved from a few years back. I planted them in decorative pots and put them on my front porch.

Recently, a delivery man came to my door with flowers sent to me by my brothers, Steve and Mike. The delivery man asked if the little sprouts were marigolds. I told him he has a good eye for flowers, and I gave him one of the pots of young marigolds. He thanked me and said it was funny that he brought me flowers and I gave him flowers. It was a nice moment.

It is moments like these that make us happy and balance out the not-so-good moments.

May you have many, many happy moments this summer.