Desperate Things

Then and Now

Sixty-five plus years ago I began catching the early GM&O train, #8, to Chicago, and walking around the Loop till noon, to Cubs’ games and a stage show late afternoons before the evening train, #5, back to Springfield. I had my own pass. Father was the chief division auditor. After the game, a stage show at the Chicago Theatre made a great day. Frankie Lane, Patti Page, Les Paul and Mary Ford, those were among the stars of those days. The morning train arrived in the Union Station in the hour after dawn. We slid backwards through the yard beneath a brightening sky, shifting sideways in the rails. In and out of light, I watched the loading docks and water tanks on the backs of buildings, and the morning workers waving. Then the sky went away and we eased into the shadows of the terminal shed and I saw myself in the window, seeing myself seeing. That’s how it is, I say, now.