Memorizing Chicago by Numbers: A Rhymed Tour of the Major Streets
My wife is always getting lost on Chicago streets. Partly to cope, she's great at coming up with little memory tricks. When I first started taking the red line, I didn't know which direction was North or South. She taught me "Ho-No" for Howard-North. I thought it sounded really dumb, but guess what--I think of it every single time I take the red line.
I wanted to help my wife remember the numbers of the major streets. The little rhymes below are supposed to help her make the connection between the streets and the numbers. If she knows the numbers for the major streets, then she'll know roughly where she is just by finding a numbered address. I hope some of these rhymes stick half as well as "Ho-No."