Chicago loses its center

Re “Chicagoans Flock to Marshall Field’s for Memories,” Dec. 26

The end of Marshall Field’s distresses me. As a child, my grandmother took me for tea in the magnificent atrium restaurant; my wife worked summers as an elevator operator; I haunted the sports department hoping to get close enough to Stanford and Bear football great Hugh Gallarneau to catch some of his talent; my mother roamed the basement for bargains in an attempt to keep us in the middle class.

Field’s was the true center of Chicago. Its great clock was the pulse of the city, a visible ticking off of the hours of our days.

EARL O’NEILL

Long Beach