• Peshtigo
• The Building
• The Neighborhood
• The Residences
• Inquiries

• overview
• 5 minutes from peshtigo
• calendar
• tour
• directory
• map

Millie Dufern tells the dog ladies, "Best and only city I would drive a horse and buggy in!" All the ladies know and love Tru the carriage horse. And Millie knows all their dogs by name… Streeterville dogs, small and peppy or long and graceful. She chats with all the owners; proud, professional ladies in sleek suits or dressed down for jogging in loose sweats and bright running shoes.

Millie blushes at the amount of attention the ladies give her horse, her face turning the color of her bright, newly-dyed hair. All the red makes her look cute - a horse and buggy girl on a busy, ultra modern street. Michigan Avenue is, Millie insists, "the best main street in the prettiest modern city in the world."

And she wants everyone to know how much she and her horse love the city. She tells the children, who nod and giggle. She sings Chicago’s praises to the local cops. They snort and roll their eyes and try not to look too pleased that this great girl is talking to them. She tells it to the other carriage drivers too, but they’ve heard it all before. Even so, they bring her hot chocolate from Ghiaradelli’s because they like Millie. It’s very cold in the days leading up to Christmas Eve, and they can all use that hot chocolate.

Millie is a horse person, which means she’s easy around Tru. Quick to pat, quick to tease. But tonight Tru feels anemic. Millie can see it in her eyes and in the way Tru holds her head, the ripple of her skin. There is a lot of love between them. Tru is Millie’s horse and Millie Dufern is Tru’s person. All the other horses have their people, but Tru probably doesn’t think much of them. Millie Dufern is the best, with her easy, full voice and her gentle hand on the reins.

So Christmas Eve is spent in the stable, even though there is money to be made. Millie needs the cash but for her, the horse always comes first. Tru sleeps extra while the other two horses that share the stable have a good long day of hauling the families around the Water Tower and through the once old, now new, streets of Streeterville. The day after Christmas Tru feels better, and Millie takes her to work, reminding her that there is still Christmas money to be made.

Millie deals with the people waiting their turn with about ten other carriages, all filling up with children and adults to go for a ride. Her motto is that a good carriage driver is always respectful of other carriage drivers. Today Millie is talking to a man full of questions. She tells him how she has been riding horses since she was five, how she owns her own carriage and Tru, and that her cab license is for the Step In Time Carriages. "Chicago is a beautiful place, isn’t it? So many flowers and trees; a great city!"

And then two adults and two little girls, twins, climb into the carriage. The girls are so small and blond, curious and shy. As they are lifted into the carriage Millie tells them, "Best and only city I would drive a horse and buggy in!" It must be true.