A journey to long ago on the South Shore

A few weeks ago, for the first time in two years, I rode the South Shore train from my home in northwest Indiana into Chicago, a distance of about 50 miles. On my way into the city, I read. On my return, I stared out the window at the route I had traveled hundreds of times in the decades since we moved from Chicago to Indiana.

After passing through Kenwood, the train entered the environs of Hyde Park, home to the University of Chicago with its majestic buildings. Here my wife, Diana, lived before we married. We courted along the grassy expanses of Jackson Park, around the Museum of Science and Industry with its classical Greek columns.

South of Hyde Park the train …