Jumped on the el today for the first time this week heading downtown to work. Looked around, and saw a ton of people with no mask on. Normally, there are a few, like the guy mumbling to himself, walking up and down the car, with his pants around his knees this morning on the Blue Line, but THIS many? Looks like I may have missed the memo. I checked online really quick and yes, I did miss the memo; masks no longer required on the CTA. I took mine off and put it in my pocket. Maybe I should have left it on… there was a special type of scent in that car; Clark/Lake didn’t smell much different. Ah, yes, I love Chicago, right?
Chicago gets a bad rap, especially lately, especially nationally. People always want to bag on Chicago, like we’re the only big city with issues. I mean, the homicide numbers that are “out of control” were about the same as 20+ years ago… with a lot less population, go figure. Yet, as I watched the most recent “murder caught on camera” that occurred at about 3am a few blocks from my favorite pizza place, I just shook my head; I remember the one I saw earlier in the week, where a guy stood over another, firing an assault rifle at him, all caught on the gas station camera. Scary out there. My first thought is my son of course; do I really want to raise him in this city? Is he going to avoid all the pitfalls, and be as lucky as me growing up in Chicago? It’s easier now, because he’s rarely out of our sight, but that will change… it’s already changing. Yes, it seems a lot worse out there today, but how much worse is it really? Social media has surely added to the bad perception of Chicago, with a lot more of the dirty deeds being caught on camera. Back in the day, somebody might have got killed in the hood, but you only heard about it from somebody in the hood; that shit wasn’t on the news. I remember being told about an older kid I knew from the Boys Club. Just so happens that my buddy’s step father, who was a fireman, responded to an emergency call one evening involving this kid. Yes, he told us how when he arrived on the scene, that this kid’s brains were oozing out due to a gun shot wound to the head; another kid from the hood that didn’t make it. Many, many stories like this that never made Facebook, Twitter, or somebody’s or some business’ camera. Still, seeing this stuff happen… We all watch violent movies; we’ve all “seen it”. Yet, to see it happen in real life, in places that you are very familiar with… sucks.
I dream of Friday 120… a happy place in Chicago. The hoodie my wife just bought me has the clock from the Wrigley Field iconic scoreboard set at 120 on the front of it, with the Cubs logo on the arm; it’s sweet. It reminds me of a more innocent time… summer vacation from grammar school, heading up by my grandmother who lived upstairs from us, watching the leadoff man at 100, and Cubs baseball at 120. Fridays at 120 were especially special, typically being the only game going on in the majors. It was rained out today. This weather man… I think, the weather has been this shitty, and things are still out of control on the streets. I think about the summer, and when it gets hot, and what that means in the hood; I think how this “hood” has stretched to Michigan Avenue, to places that are normally thought of as safe. Buckle your seat belts Chicago…
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