On the morning of July 24th, 1961, at the tender age of 19, I left my 10 by 12 room at the Lakeview YMCA in Chicago, boarded a troop train bound for Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and went out into the world - never to return. On the morning of October 6th, 2005, I boarded a plane to return for a ten-day visit to attend my 45th high school reunion. The following pages revisit the place of my birth and the world I left behind so many years ago.