Some days are like no others. You know, the ones when everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing. In Chicago on January 27, 1967 it was The Big Snow. It had started the night before. Diane, our baby sitter, decided to stay overnight rather than try to come back the next morning. I had an important appointment downtown. I was getting divorced.
I still can’t believe I trudged over to the el and it was running. When I arrived at Daley Plaza I was alone in a sea of white. We were in an “arms race” then and there was talk of nuclear war. And, after the bomb, “the nuclear winter.”
End of the marriage? End of the world? I took a breath. No, I’m here now and it is gorgeous. Downtown Chicago. Silent and calm.
I stayed for a few minutes to deliberately take it all in. The el would take me back to whatever waited for me at home.
So eloquently captured, Joan!!
ReplyDelete💞Camille
Oh, yes, I remember. I was a young working gal stuck on the bus in the park surrounded by other trying-to-get-home commuters who became best friends for this one crisis night. What an adventure. Walking on snow on top of the cars! Phyllis
ReplyDeleteI remember the children walking on top of the cars.
ReplyDeleteBig things. Snow and divorce. One stops a city, the other changes a life.
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