I went up north earlier to watch a scene from DILLINGER being set up for filming--I took a few photos for a future post--and I talked cop talk with a uniform watching over Roscoe Street. I took my time bumming around, went into Chicago Comics, took the Ravenswood el to the west side of the Loop and looked at more demolition sites, then continued on to the Orange Line to catch the last bus from Midway at 8:15 PM. I had a great rush of nostalgia bordering on deja vu being in the Loop after rush hour but before dusk. The crowd thins, you see more people hugging, more people begging, and the beggars are slowly moving towards wherever they've staked themselves for the night. I saw one guy going to a box behind some Port-A-Pots near the Chicago Theater. In the winter, I've seen people sleeping on top of steam vents above the subway. It was a nice night, mid 60s, so maybe that's why I saw so many people hugging, young college kids from the Art Institute dorms. Usually I'm passing through downtown from a Twilight Tales reading much later at night, or if I have a focus study session--as I do tomorrow at 11:30, $100 to talk an hour about lip balm--it is still well after 9 PM that I head home. (On those occasions, I take the Red Line to 87th & State; I tell everyone my coach turns into a pumpkin if I'm not there by 11:05 PM. So the wind, the sky, the homeless and those in love, they all reminded me of days when I worked downtown and found myself walking around, doing exactly what I reveled in tonight.
3 comments:
I don't know what it's truly like to be homeless. For a day or two, after Katrina. It felt that way. But it wasn't real, not the way sleeping in a box is.
It's good that you know the city well enough to enjoy it at night.
So...they're making a movie about DILLINGER? Who's starring?
The most homeless people I've ever seen concentrated in one area...it's a toss-up between San Diego (where I'd go if I was homeless), or Philadelphia (where I would NOT go if I was homeless). Philadelphia was horrible. It was wet and it was (very) cold. Every spot that had any overhanging shelter at all also held a cardboard bed and a homeless person huddled under coats/blankets/newspapers. I'll never forget that.
Sounds like a very thoughtful night indeed.
As far as I've seen to date since getting here, most of the homeless in Knoxville hang out on the sidewalk under the overpass by the Rescue Kitchen most of the time. At least they have a place to get food.
:-(
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