In the midst of our worst Chicago winter ever we were so beaten down we gave up on our suburb search completely and caved and signed a lease for another year. But that was a good thing, since now we (I) have even more time to obsess about where to move.
We happened to have a rental car one weekend, so we hit the North Shore suburb of Wilmette on the way back from a weekend at Timber Ridge Lodge & Waterpark (holy crap...more about that crazy later). So I didn't know much about Wilmette. A family I know just moved there last summer, but that's about it. When we first rolled into town my eyes lit up. Oooh! Quaint houses! Near the lake! Not crazy far from the city and served by the Metra and el! Low crime and good schools! Then we realized we were in eastern Wilmette. Western Wilmette, where we can afford to live, has all of those thing, except delete "close to the lake" and add "close to strip malls and the expressway." And delete "quaint houses" and add "the worst of mid-century architecture."
Ok, maybe I'm being a little overly dramatic (as usual), but we soon discovered that the houses in our price range were pretty outdated with not much in the way of curb appeal, and I'm someone actually who can deal with a little wood paneling here and there (we'll pretend we're on "Madmen!") or pink bathroom tub/sink/toilet (it's not outdated, it's retro!), but for $400,000? And there are some kinds of exterior ugly that just can't be fixed.
Once we adjusted our expectations we started to appreciate the charm of the area overall. But one of my main concerns was about high school. Kids in Wilmette (along with other North Shore neighborhoods) go to the much-buzzed-about New Trier High School in Winnetka (a town often confused with Wilmette because it is on the North Shore and starts with a "W," but even more wealthy). I don't care about the whole "keeping up with the Joneses" business, but how would it be for Tate going to school with kids from such wealthy families? Would he get teased a lot? Or have access to way better drugs? And yes, I realize that worrying about my kid being one of the "poor" kids in a super rich safe area is ridiculous and insulting to all the people who grow up in far, far worse situations. But I've seen "Pretty in Pink," people, and that didn't look like fun.
Not long after our trip to Wilmette I was at dinner with a friend and she mentioned that one of her friends moved to western Wilmette recently. Her friend found out after she moved there that people from western Wilmette are referred to (by some) as Willbillies. Argh, at least I would know what to prepare Tate for in high school. I also consulted Urban Dictionary and found out that western Wilmette is also referred to as the "Wilmetto." Nice. So Wilmette is still on our short list as I try to suss out, among other things, whether I can see myself as a North Shore Elly May. Who am I kidding--at my age I'd be Granny.
