| Radio was the big communicator, back when I | | | | inclined to buy you some candy, just to make |
| was a kid. Whole families huddled around the | | | | the noise stop for awhile. We weren't too |
| speaker of that hulk. Our minds, working like | | | | dumb.Fighting in Chicago was a prerequisite |
| a cotton picker on a hot summer day. We had | | | | to boyhood. When we would walk down the |
| imagination. Vivid, plentiful thoughts, | | | | streets, past the alleys, fear was constant, |
| moving throughout the story which was being | | | | as all the really bad boys lurked down that |
| broadcast.The characters, were like people we | | | | alley way. No place for the faint of heart. |
| somehow knew. People who lived right down the | | | | We all thought we were tough guys back then. |
| street from us, in the three story apartment | | | | Maybe we really were?No drugs back then, at |
| building. That apartment building, was a | | | | least, none of us every heard about them. Our |
| warehouse of eclectic personalities, popping | | | | parents made vague references to drugs, in |
| from every floor, and every door.Old cars, | | | | retrospect, but, really, they didn't even |
| now relics of the past. New, when we were | | | | know what they were. Although, Pops knew what |
| young. Cool cars too, metal so thick, you | | | | beer was. He knew all about that. All the |
| could hurt your hand just bumping into it. | | | | World War 2 guys drank beer. Because, they |
| Lasted a long time, and made moving about the | | | | really were tough guys. We didn't know that |
| big city of Chicago much easier than taking | | | | you could be tough, and not drink, and smoke |
| the trolley, bus or "EL", short for elevated | | | | cigarettes.Life in the alleys of Chicago, was |
| train.Oh yes, want to get the scare of a | | | | not only for tough guys. It was an avenue for |
| lifetime, ride the "EL" around one of those | | | | commerce as well. The coal man came with the |
| sharp corners, thirty feet off the ground. | | | | truck, and shovelled coal down a shute into |
| Steel wheels grinding against steel tracks, | | | | your basement, to keep your furnace going. |
| making sounds so shrill,the devil himself, | | | | Thats right coal. Black smoke billowing from |
| would cringe. I know my Mom's hands were | | | | everyone's buildings.Men selling rags, |
| crimped for a week, when I would grip her | | | | singing a song that was well known to us. |
| hand so tight around those curves.People | | | | "Rags, Rags, everyone needs rags, Ragman |
| wearing clothes that made them all look like | | | | coming, come and gettem" Gosh, they sold |
| gangsters. Suits way to large, cuffs on | | | | everything in those alleys.Milkmen, with |
| shirts that could hide a deck of cards, and a | | | | horse drawn carts. Oh now, we loved those |
| pair of dice.Litter blowing everywhere, down | | | | horses. They were huge with covers over their |
| windy streets, sweeping dicarded cigarette | | | | eyes. As kids we didn't know what those were. |
| packages, and paper, and dirt, like a | | | | We really didn't care as long as we could pet |
| hurricane unleashed. It is the Windy City, | | | | the horses.The milkman was kindly, and |
| after all.Another memory comes to mind now, | | | | chipped off chunks of ice, from the big |
| tennis balls being bounced off the lowest | | | | blocks in the wagon, which kept the milk |
| step of building's porches. Thump, thump, and | | | | cold. We absolutely loved that. Ice, who |
| crowds of kids leaping over one another, | | | | would think that a little thing like that |
| trying to catch the ball, as it bounced high | | | | would be so important to little kids. I will |
| into the air. No kid would even care to watch | | | | always be gratefull to that man for his |
| that now, much less participate. We did it | | | | kindness.Scissor and knife sharpeners. They |
| for hours. Boredom played tricks on the | | | | all had a song. Singing loudly, I admired |
| mind.Did I mention, the best steps to bounce | | | | them so. They were the best kind of |
| a ball on, were the steps of Peterson's | | | | entepreneurs. Business men, who set their own |
| store. To us, it was the candy depot. | | | | pace, in a world of frantic motion.There is |
| Apothecary jars, filled with candy of every | | | | so much more to those days. So many memories |
| description. Hands full of candy for pennies. | | | | that were the best kind of life experiences, |
| Kids drool when I tell them how much candy, | | | | back when we was kids in Chicago.Part two, |
| they could have bought back then with two | | | | tomorrow night. Look for it under my pen name |
| dollars.We learned young, that after long | | | | Native American name, Luksi Humma, in the |
| hours of the thumping noise. People were | | | | search bar on the left menu. |