----- Original Message -----
From: "joe green" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2007 6:36 PM
Subject: Re: I said he was my favorite literary character...better
formatting I hope
> That's a wonderful story. I was at Marquette in Milwaukee in 1967. A
> freshman.January.
> I was very depressed since I wasn't allowed to take any upper
> division English courses, I was allowed to audit a Shakespeare course
> taught by a visiting professor from Oxford. He asked the class if anyone
> knew what "Flyting" was. I did and told them. He asked me to leave the
> class.
>
> In the hallway he explained since I was only auditing the course and hence
> afraid to take it for credit I should keep my trap shut. I tried to
> explain but he went back to class taking Shakespeare with him. I had a
> $450 Cashiers check and about 100 dollars in cash. I
> went back to the dorm, packed everything in a duffel bag and walked to
> the bus station and bought a ticket for Chicago. From there I would go to
> New Orleans and be a poet. This was, I discover, Thursday January 26,
> 1967.
> Here:
> "Severe snowstorms are relatively frequent in Chicago compared to
> Miami, but infrequent compared to Buffalo and other points east. Chicago's
> snowstorm of the century occurred in the winter of 1967. After
> unseasonably warm temperatures, snow started falling at 5:02 a.m. Thursday
> January 26. Snow continued to fall through Friday morning fora total
> accumulation of 23 inches, with drifts to 6 feet. Cold weather and
> periodic snowfalls over the next 10 days created more havoc. Although
> trains continued to run, cars, buses and planes didn't. Almost all
> schools, offices and other work places were closed for several days.
> Commuters unable to reach home spent several nights camped out in downtown
> hotels, O'Hare International Airport and stranded cars. The Department of
> Streets and Sanitation, which is responsible for plowing streets,
> estimated that 75 million tons of snow fell on Chicago. Some of it was
> sent south in empty railcars as a present to Florida children
> who had never seen snow before. Large numbers of fatalities are
> relatively uncommon in winter storms, but 60 deaths were attributed to
> the storm--mostly heart attacks from shoveling snow. 273 looters were
> arrested. One young girl was killed while police were shooting at
> looters."
> I got off and made my way to the train station. I tried to cash
> my check. Banks were open but closing soon. They looked at me with my
> long hair and duffel bag and sneered. I made my way to Old Town and
> decided to find a flop house (all part of my new lifestyle). I went into
> a record store and the owner offered to take me home with him. Ha! I was
> wary -- bought my Dylan and left. I found a hotel of the sort Maurice the
> Bellboy might have worked in (Maurice from "Catcher in the Rye.") Left my
> stuff there and wandered the streets feeling quite alive. Chatted with
> everyone. Asked where I might cash my check. Told anyone I was off to
> New Orleans.
>
> A guy shoveling snow thought I wanted to get there to join the army
> and railed against "the fuckers in this fucking town." Night. I was,
> more or less, lost but trying to get to the hotel when from a door below
> the sidewalk -- a barber shop below the pavement -- a hunchback walked
> out. Looked at me -- and this is absolutely true -- stared at me and
> said "In the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics failure is dealt with
> harshly."
> Then he went back to the shop. I didn't follow. Decided to return to
> school.
>
>
>
>
Well, you obviously encountered an angel, Joe. A very Chicago one.
Best film about the place, and, I think, a great and shamefully unknown
American film, was called Thief. 1980, starring James Caan. I brood about
it to this day, and not because of the violence.
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