American Notes CHICAGO

When Abe Stolar left with his parents for the Soviet Union in 1931, his native West Side Chicago neighborhood babbled with Yiddish and Polish. Now Spanish fills the air around Humboldt Park, Murray F. Tuley High School has become Jose De Diego Academy, and the place where Stolar's home once stood is a vacant lot. But to Stolar, 77, back last week after 58 years in the U.S.S.R., it felt familiar. "It's wonderful," he said. "I feel 60 years younger."

His father vanished into the Stalinist terror of the 1930s, but Stolar lived on. He served in combat with the Soviet army in World War II, but he retained his U.S. citizenship. After the war he worked as a translator and announcer for Radio Moscow. In 1975 Stolar got permission to emigrate to Israel. But as he and his family approached their plane, Soviet officialdom snatched them back -- and covered them in bureaucratic darkness until President Reagan took up their cause in 1985.

Finally, nearly four years later, Stolar got the green light to leave in March. He and his Soviet-born wife Gita decided to return to his hometown on July 4. Once in the Windy City, Stolar donned an I LOVE CHICAGO button, took in a baseball game at Wrigley Field and mused, "I wouldn't be surprised if I decided to move back here."