by Michael Kenney - March 1, 2008
Got dispatched to Signature Airways at Midway Airport one night,'93-94 something like that. SA is set off to the side of the main terminals, and is really not much more than a series of hangars with small offices in front. You pull a limo in off of Central Ave, sign in with the guy at the guard booth, and then drive the car out on to the...what?...taxi-way/tarmac/ parking lot. The place where they park the private jets when they aren't inside. Meeting a customer at SA often involved driving the car up to a plane and waiting while the screaming engines died down, and the little staircase came flipping out. On this particular night, the guy at the booth told me my customer had already left on his Harley.
Not being late, I was just about to get pissed off when the guard handed me a briefcase. Told me to take it to a Chicago Ave address, and give it to the doorman. My drugdealdar would have normally gone off, but I knew the guy. I'd driven him home before. He's no drug dealer.
Took the briefcase, dove it downtown, double-parked in front of the building (where Oprah had a place at the time) and went to see the doorman. He explained the whole situation. My customer had hopped off his jet, hopped on his Harley, and planned on taking a long ride around the city. Said he didn't feel like carrying his briefcase around all night on his bike.
$60 +20% auto tip +$50 for the meet.,,,something like $120 to get his briefcase driven home. Very interesting guy, if a tad eccentric.
1908-2008 was a hell of a century.
Teddy Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, FDR, Truman,Ike, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush.
We fought in two World Wars, gone through Korea, Nam, Gulf War, GW's War, and a bunch of lesser skirmishes.
We had ghastly droughts, deadly floods, epic hurricanes, 2 big SanFrancisco earthquakes, volcanoes, blizzards, and killer tornadoes.
We went from canvas and wood airplanes, to space shuttles.
We went from reading books by candlelight, to listening to the radio,to watching television, to surfing the internet. to eye damage from computer monitors.
We went from Chaplain silents, to Wings, to Oz, to GWTW, to The Exorcist, to No Country for Old Men.
From 6 story stone structures to 110 story monstrosities of steel and glass.
Fermi went nuclear at the University of Chicago.
Jazz, Blues, Rockabliiy, Rock and Roll, Disco, retro, punk, garage, grunge,iTunes.
Since 1908, we went from 88,000,000 US citizens, to 300,000,000.
We went from staring at the moon to standing on it. Halley's Comet came back around again.
All of that shit, and countless other significant events happened in the last 100 years of US history. Great people lived and died. Great leaders, great writers, great architects, great musicians, great actors, great directors, great conductors, great artists.
There are very few people alive today who were breathing in 1908, and I'm sure those that are still alive have no memory of their infancy.Which means I guess there's nobody alive who could tell me what it was like to watch the Chicago Cubs beat Detroit 4 games to 1 to take the1908 World Series. That's the last time the Chicago Cubs won the World Series.
Spent my childhood a rabid Cubs fan. My brothers would let me tag along and we'd hang in the right field bleachers. Cubs games were no big deal back then because they sucked (except in '69 and '84. 2003 doesn't count because by then I'd given up and become a Sox fan.) Now it's different. It's very hard to get a ticket to the game because, well even though the Cubs still suck ass, Wrigley Field has taken on iconic status. People go to Wrigley now, just to say they went to Wrigley.
Which makes recent events interesting. Remember the guy who had me drive his briefcase home? His name is Sam Zell, and now he owns Tribune Co., which in turn owns the Cubs. Zell is being forced to sell the Cubs because he owns part of the White Sox. But while he waits for the Mark Cubans of the world to line up with their checkbooks, Sam has decided to entertain offers for corporate naming rights to the baseball park where the Cubs play. People are a touch upset around here. I don't really see what the big deal is, as PK & Wm Wrigley weren't exactly nice people, and chewing gum isn't what I'd call a branding I'd choose.
I love tradition and nostalgia as much as anyone, but Teddy F-ing Roosevelt was president last time they won the whole thing. Cub fans need to realize that the history of that park includes never having seen a World Series Champion banner hoisted up the pole in center since the place opened in 1916. Maybe it is time for a change.
Have to admit though, that Wrigley Field does sound better than Sales Genie.Com Park.
Michael Kenney is a Chicago contractor who practically never blogs at Out of The Loop.