Contributed by bturner@highlightsofchicago.com

A few years ago I was deciding what I would like to do when I retired from my educational publishing job. One idea was to go back to school and the other idea was to volunteer at the Chicago History Museum. Little did I know, but volunteering at CHM is like a college education on Chicago history and culture. The museum provided lectures and demonstrations from several well-known Chicago historians and docents.

Since 2000, I have provided gallery tours, neighborhood walking tours and “L” (elevated train) tours in the city. But that was not enough for me. I wanted to be an expert on Chicago, so I started researching and writing books. The first one was about the neighborhood where I was born, Douglas/Grand Boulevard, commonly called Bronzeville. This is the neighborhood to which thousands of African Americans migrated at the beginning of the 20th Century.

Since then there have been two other neighborhood/city guide books, The Windies’ City and Chicago Neighborhoods with Flavor—Getting Out of the Loop, a children’s story, TJ and the Mysterious Stranger, and most recently, a Spanish coloring book. There are many more neighborhoods and stories to tell about this great city.  If your travels bring you to Chicago, take a look at my website or contact me at bturner@highlightsofchicago.com.